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Mamta Devi & Ors. vs. The Reliance General Insurance Company Limited & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 566Decided 19 May 2023
Civil Appeal No. 3904 of 2023
J.K. Maheshwari · Aravind Kumar

Background

The appellants (the widow, son, and parents of a truck driver who died in a road accident in 2011 while working) had been awarded about Rs. 4.31 lakh in compensation by the Deputy Labour Commissioner-cum-Commissioner for Workmen Compensation, based on an assumed wage of Rs. 150/day. The insurance company had filed a written statement but never contested the claim on merits or cross-examined the family. On the claimants' appeal seeking higher compensation, the Patna High Court instead set aside the entire award, holding the Commissioner had no jurisdiction because it was supposedly a "contested case" that should have gone to the Labour Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held the High Court erred: merely filing a written statement does not make a claim a "contested case" when the insurer never actually cross-examined witnesses or disputed the claim: here the employer had admitted the deceased earned Rs. 6,000/month, and the insurer never challenged the original award. Rather than send the matter back and delay justice further for a widow, a young son, and elderly parents, the Court itself recalculated the compensation using the admitted wage of Rs. 6,000/month (instead of the artificially low Rs. 150/day), applying the statutory multiplier for the deceased's age (22 years), and enhanced the compensation to Rs. 6,64,110 with 12% annual interest from one month after the accident.

Lesson Learnt

In welfare-oriented compensation schemes for workplace deaths, courts should look at unchallenged, admitted facts (like an employer's own admission of wages) rather than technical labels like "contested case" to deny or delay rightful compensation to a bereaved family, and appellate courts should resolve such matters finally rather than send grieving claimants back for more litigation where the facts are clear.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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