In an appeal filed before the Jharkhand High Court under Section 30(1)(a) of the Employee’s Compensation Act, 1923 for enhancement of an award dated 31-10-2014 by the Labour Court, Deoghar, a Single Judge Bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi held that the appellant was entitled to a penalty and directed for 50% of the awarded amount to be paid within four weeks.
On 26-05-2012, the deceased was going to unload stone chips from a truck as per the instructions and directions of his employer. However, due to rash and negligent driving, the said truck turned turtle and the deceased sustained grievous injuries that led to his death. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered and the truck was seized. The widow of the deceased filed for claim before the Labour Court, contending that the monthly wages of the deceased were Rs. 6000/- per month along with Rs. 50 per day as khuraki. The insurer of the offending truck was Sriram General Insurance Company Ltd. The Labour Court allowed a compensation of Rs. 5,83,270/-, however, the appellant submitted that no order of penalty under Section 4(A) of the ECA was passed.
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The Court clarified that interest in cases such as the present one was required to be paid from the date of accident. It was stated that since the ECA was a beneficial piece of legislation, a duty was cast upon the employer to pay the adequate compensation within one month from the date it fell due. The Court perused Section 4(A) of the Act and stated that penalty was liable to be given and that there was no justification of not awarding compensation to the appellant within 30 days.
The Court found that the appellant was entitled to penalty and directed 50% of the awarded amount to be paid to the appellant within four weeks, along with Rs. 5000 as funeral expenses. Thus, the appeal was partly allowed.
