SOLEMAN BIBI Vs. EIRY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference under Section 27, Workmen's Compensation Act, by the Commissioner for Bengal. The question referred is as to the meaning of the expression "unmarried daughter" in Section 2(1)(d) of the Act. The applicant is the daughter of the deceased workman; she is a widow and it is not disputed that she lived with and was maintained by her father daring widowhood for about eight years. She was at the date of the death of her father his only relative. Before the Commissioner the applicant relied upon the case of Moti Bai V/s. N.W. By. A I R 1932 Lah 1 in which it was held that the expression "unmarried sister" included widowed sister. The learned Commissioner had certain doubts as to the correctness of that decision and at the request of both parties to the proceeding he has referred the question to this Court in a careful and well-considered letter of reference dated 20 July 1932. The Commissioner's two main reasons for questioning the correctness of the decision referred to are expressed by him at the end of his letter of reference as follows: First I find great difficulty in holding that discussions of the construction of settlements and wills were in pari materia; [he refers to the English authorities which formed the basis of the decision in Moti Bai's case AIR 1932 Lah 1]; and secondly, there being no element of de facto dependency in the definition in the Act, the observations at p. 232 (of 13 Lah.) Moti Bai's case AIR 1932 Lah 1 appear to me to introduce an extraneous factor into the discussion.

(2.) With both these observations I agree subject to this, that I do not read the remarks at p. 232 aa meaning that the applicant's claim was adjudged or awarded on the basis of de facto dependency. 1 read them as meaning that where the legislature has sought to give the connotation of the word dependents" by setting out descriptions of certain relatives, and one of those descriptions is uncertain, it is relevant to consider who according to the ordinary notions of the people as regarded as dependents."

(3.) With regard to the meaning of the word "unmarried" the learned Commissioner expresses his own view at the end of Clause 3 and the beginning of C1.4 of the letter of reference as follows: (1) that the word unmarried" has a primary and a secondary significance; (2) that in its primary or ordinary signification the word unmarried means never having been married"; and. (3) that the application of the secondary meaning of the word unmarried is entirely a matter of context and circumstances. These propositions he founds upon a reference to the dictionary and his reading of the English authorities to which he had access.