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Judgment
HEARD Appellant''s Counsel. There is no appearance on behalf of the Respondent. In our opinion, Counsel appearing for the Appellant is well founded in his submission that the State Commission was totally in error in granting any compensation to the Complainant after its having been found by the State Commission that the Insurance Company was not liable under the policy of insurance in question to make any payment to the Insured and it had only paid some amount by way of Ex-gratia payment on compassionate grounds. What the State Commission has done is to hold that there was delay in making the ex-gratia payment and to award compensation to the Complainant on the ground that there has been such delay. In our opinion, there is no question of any time limit within purely ex-gratia and it was paid to the Complainant on compassionate grounds alone. Such payment is not receivable as of right and the Insurance Company cannot be said to be guilty of any delay in the matter of making such payment on the ground that the decision for granting such ex-gratia relief was taken after a lapse of some time. The Order of the State Commission awarding compensation to the Complainant is, therefore, unsustainable in law and it is set aside. The appeal is allowed as above. The parties will bear their respective costs. Appeal allowed.