SIVARATRI RAMAKOTAMMA Vs. NAGASARAPU KRISHNAMURTHY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A reference was made under Sec. 27 of the Workmens Compensation Act by the Additional commissioner, Workmens Compensation Andhra Pradesh under the following circumstances.

(2.) An application was filed before him under Sec. 19 of the Act by the widow of one Mastana, an employee of the respondent claiming a sum of Rs. 1,200/ by way of compensation. Mastan, in the service of the respondent. His duties consisted in buying rice and other articles for the respondent and exporting them by boats. On 20-10-1953 he purchased rice on behalf of the respondent at vijiyavada loaded it in the boat and was travelling in the boat. Unfortunately the boat capsized while in the middle of the river with the result that eight peresons including the deceased died. It is in those circumstances that the widow of the said Mastan, a minor, through her next friend, he brother applied for compensation.

(3.) The application was opossed on various grounds, one of them being that Mastan was not a workman within the meaning of the Workmens Compensation Act and as such the provisions of Sec. 19 could not be invoked by his widow.