MANAGER, DALU TEA ESTATE Vs. BARUNI KURMI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal under Section 30 of the Workmen's Compensation Act against an order of the Commissioner appointed under the Workman's compensation Act to determine the amount of compensation which a workman is entitled to get on account of accidents. The Respondent Baruni Kurmi was admittedly working in the Lalbag T.E. an out garden of Dalu T.E. and is a workman within the meaning of the Work men's Compensation Act (hereinafter called 'the Act'); Respondent's case is that on the 19th January 1959 while she was carrying a load of sun -grass over a high tilla she accidentally fell down and broke her right -knee resulting in permanent total disablement.

(2.) SECTION 2(1)(g) of the Act defines 'partial disablement' as:

(3.) MR . Dam for the Appellant has very strenuously contended that the conduct of the Respondent after she joined duty after she was treated in the hospital fully shows that she was never disabled. If she in fact was not able to work after she worked for a day in the garden, one would have expected in the normal course that she would go to the hospital for further treatment or report to the Manager that she was unable to work on account of the permanent disablement. She kept quiet for a long time till in 1960 the Union was approached and the application for compensation was filed. I do not think that any such inference can be drawn from that fact. If she had been thoroughly treated in the two hospitals and then worked for a day in the garden and found that she was unable to work normally one would not expect from her that she will again go to the hospital and try for any further treatment. Her failure therefore to go to the hospital after she had worked for a day in the garden and found that she was not fit to work, cannot be said to be consistent with the theory that she was never disabled on account of she injury received by her. She was also not in a position to produce any other evidence of her disability, except her own statement and the statement of the Sardar under whom she worked for a day after her discharge from the hospital.