M P SHARMA Vs. MOHAN BEHERA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal under Section 30 of the Workmen's Compensation Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') against the award of the Deputy Labour Commissioner and Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, Rourkela, dated 10. 6. 1980, who by the impugned order awarded a sum of Rs. 14, 820/ - as compensation to the injured workman Mohan Behera.

(2.) THE appellant was a contractor who had entered into an agreement with Steel Authority of India. Rourkela Steel Plant, for supply of labour and the injured was one such labourer who had been engaged as a coolie in the Sintering Plant. On 23. 10. 1978. the injured was required to attend to the drum which was jammed and while he was attending to the said work, his right hand was dragged and he was seriously injured so much so that the hand could be made free only after the belt was cut and he was hospitalised from 23.10.1978 to 14.2.1979. According to the workman, his right hand below the elbow joint became shapeless, useless and disfigured in consequence of which he is not in a position to lift the right hand. He, therefore, claimed compensation amounting to Rs. 15,120/ - on the basis that he was receiving Rs. 7/ - per day as wages.

(3.) THE injured alone was examined in support of his case. The learned Commissioner on analysis of the evidence came to hold that the injury sustained by the workman was caused by the accident arising out of and in course of employment and not due to his negligence. He further found that the condition of the right baud of the injured was such that it was equivalent to loss of a hand as envisaged in Schedule -I, Part -II of the Act. Taking the monthly wages of the injured at Rs. 210/ -par month and calculating under Schedule -IV of the Act, he assessed the total compensation payable to the injured at Rs. 14, 820).