New India Assurance Company Ltd. vs Abdul Said kha and Others

Subhash Samvatsar, J.—This is an appeal filed by the Insurance Company under Section 30 of the Workmen''s Compensation Act against the direction to pay penalty.

Question of payment of penalty is concluded by the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Ved Prakash Garg Vs. Premi Devi and others, , and the subsequent judgments in the case of New India Assurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Shiv Singh and Another, , and in the case of Kashibhai Rambhai Patel Vs. Shahabhai Somabhai Parmar and Others, , in which the Supreme Court laid down that Insurance Company cannot be held liable for payment of penalty and owner is liable for the said amount.

Counsel for the respondents-claimants has said that he has filed an appeal against the same award for enhancement of compensation. The said appeal was registered as Misc. Appeal No. 467/1996. The appeal was dismissed by this Court on 30.1.1997; Letters Patent Appeal No. 116/1997 preferred against the said judgment was also dismissed on 2.7.1998 with liberty to file a review application against the judgment of the Single Judge. Accordingly, the claimants have preferred a review application which is numbered as M.CC. No. 77/1998 and is still pending.

Counsel for the claimants submitted that the direction of exonerating Insurance Company from payment of penalty should not come in his way of getting higher compensation.

It is made clear that in the event the claimants are awarded higher compensation in the said review application, the direction against the Insurance Company exonerating from payment of penalty will not come in its way.

Accordingly, the impugned award is modified to the extent that the Insurance Company is exonerated from payment of penalty part awarded by the Commissioner for Workmen''s Compensation, and the claimants are entitled to recover the same from respondent No. 1.

With the above directions this appeal is disposed of.