RATANLAL RAJMISTRI Vs. MOHANLAL VERMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT Ratanlal Rajmistri made an application to the Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, Jabalpur on 7.5.1976 claiming a sum of Rs. 25,000/- as compensation for permanent disablement due to a personal injury, i.e. fracture in right thigh said to have caused to him on 12.7.1974 by accident arising out and in the course of his alleged employment as a mason with respondent Mohanlal Verma. Respondent Mohanlal Verma was a retired Post Master and resided in a house of his own situated in Galgala Ward of Jabalpur city. Respondent Dr. V.V. Shrivastava was son of Mohanlal Verma. It was alleged by appellant Ratanlal that respondent Dr. V.V. Shrivastava lived and kept his dispensary in the above said house belonging to his father. It was further alleged by him that the accident happened when he was working as a mason in the said house. It was for the said reason that he joined respondent Dr. V.V. Shrivastava also as a party in the claim. In their written-statement, the respondent denied both the things. They denied that they had employed the appellant as a mason during the relevant period. They also denied that any such injury as alleged had been caused to the appellant on 12.7.1974 in the manner alleged by him. The Commissioner for Workmen Compensation vide his award dated 30.11.1977 passed in Case No. 7/76 N.F. accepted the above said defence of the respondents and dismissed the application made by the appellant. Being aggrieved, the appellant has filed the present appeal under Section 30 of the Workmen Compensation Act in this Court.

(2.) FROM the facts and circumstances stated above, it is clear that the most important question arising for consideration in the case was whether the appellant had been working as a mason in the house belonging to respondent Mohanlal Verma on 12.7.1974 and whether while he was so working the particular personal injury as mentioned above was caused to him by an accident in the course of the said work.

(3.) IT was not disputed by the appellant that after be had received the particular injury, he was treated for the same first at Victoria Hospital Jabalpur and then at Medical College Jabalpur. The medical evidence produced in the case indicated that the appellant was admitted in Victoria Hospital, Jabalpur during the period 26.9.1974 to 20.10.1974. It was N.A.W. 3 Dr. Ashok Kumar Jain who had examined him at the time of his admission in the hospital and made the relevant entries in the out-door and bed-head tickets. Dr. Jain stated in his evidence in the Court that at the time of his admission the appellant had complained of pain in his hip joints and expressed his inability to walk. The appellant had told him that he had sustained the injury from a fall about 2 days back. The evidence of Dr. Jain found support from the documents that were maintained in the hospital and were proved by him. This meant that the appellant had received the particular injury in the thigh sometime in the last week of September, 1974 and not on 12.7.1974 as alleged by him.