In an appeal by the New India Assurance Company Ltd. (NIACL) before the Supreme Court against a judgment dated 05-10-2009 by the Karnataka High Court, a Division Bench of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Manmohan refrained from interfering with the impugned judgment but asked the Law Commission of India to consider amending Section 2(1)(d)(iii)(d) of the Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923 (ECA).
In the present case, the deceased was survived by two adult widowed sisters who were dependent on him. The NIACL had preferred the appeal against the impugned order, wherein the Commissioner had treated the widowed sisters as dependents of the deceased employee under the ECA and awarded compensation in their favour.
NIACL contended that the sisters did not qualify as dependents of the deceased as per the statute. On 24-08-2023, this Court directed the Union to assist the Court regarding Section 2(1)(d)(iii)(d) of the ECA, according to which ‘dependent’ includes a minor brother, or an unmarried sister, or a minor widowed sister.
Considering the submissions and the amount of compensation involved in the present matter, the Court refrained from interfering with the impugned judgment and dismissed the appeal. However, the Court stated that the question of law was still open.
The Court stated that the ECA was enacted in 1923 and that, in the present scenario, there would usually not be a widowed minor sister, specifically after the enactment of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Hence, the Court opined that the Law Commission of India should consider the matter for a suitable amendment of the said provision or any other provision in the Act.
The Court directed that intimation be sent to the respondents regarding the dismissal of the appeal so that they could withdraw the compensation amount from the Karnataka High Court. Further, the Court said that if any of the respondents had expired, their legal heirs were permitted to withdraw the amount.
Appearances:
For Appellants – Mr. Salil Paul, Mr. Sahil Paul, Ms. Manjeet Chawla, Mr. Sandeep Dayal, Ms. Kiran Bala Agarwal
For Respondents – Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, Ms. Shreya Jain, Mr. Anirudh Singh, Ms. BLN Shivani, Mr. Amrish Kumar
