STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH Vs. N K BHATTACHARYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE respondent N. K. Bhattacharya, working Manager of the Steel Melting Shop, Bhilai Steel Works. Bhilai, was tried for, and convicted of an offence punishable under section 92 of the Factories Act, 1948, for failing to properly maintain a lifting tackle in contravention of clause (a) (ii) of section 29 (1) of the Act and he was sentenced by Magistrate First Class, Durg, to pay a fine of Rs. 250 or to undergo, in default, simple imprisonment for one month. However, in the appeal preferred by him, he was acquitted. THE State Government have filed this appeal against his acquittal.

(2.) THE material facts, which are established by evidence and also admitted by the respondent, are these. On 13th October 1961, when the permanent Manager of the Steel Melting Shop, Bhilai Steel Works, was on leave and the respondent was working as the Manager, there was an accident. As usual, molten metal is conveyed from the furnace to the ladle through a launder. This launder is provided with four lugs casted in it. A lifting tackle with four chains hooking the four lugs of the launder is used to lift it up for taking it to another furnace. It transpired that one of the chains had become unserviceable because its shackle had melted. Even so, the respondent allowed the lifting tackle, with only three working chains, to be used. At the material time, when the launder was being taken to another furnace, one of the remaining three shackles snapped with the result that the launder tilted and some hot slag, steel and brick fell over Itwariram, a ground workman, who, in consequence, died on the spot instantaneously.

(3.) THE third witness on the point is M. K. Mehta D. W. 5. He stated that the proper method of lifting up a rigid article like a launder is to use a two-legged sling, that is, two chains [Paragraph 7J, In this connection, he referred to the following passage from British standard specification on wrought iron chain slings published by the British Standards Institution in 1950: