In an appeal against an Employees' Compensation award, the High Court examined if the Tribunal erred in assessing the deceased's income based on minimum wages due to lack of documentary evidence, finding no substantial question of law.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
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M.A. 133 of 2021
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
M.A. No. 133 of 2021
(Against the judgment and award dated 20.01.2021 passed in E.C. Case no. 13 of 2019)
Both residents of village – Chungalkhar (Chungal) Post- Bhandaro, P.S.Hirodih, District- Giridih PIN code - 825412
Versus
.. Respondents/ Opp. Parties
For the Appellants : Mr. Arvind Kr. Lall, Adv . For the Respondents : Ms. Swati Shalini, Adv.
P R E S E N T
HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE ANIL KUMAR CHOUDHARY
By the Court:- Heard the parties.
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M.A. 133 of 2021
5,000/- to be paid by the O.P. no. 1 to the petitioners as cremation expenses.
1. Whether the deceased was in employment on the alleged date of accident to the one Kiran Kumar Yadav ?
2. Whether the deceased was driving truck no. NL-01K-9283 at the instance of its owner and died in accident on 09.01.2019?
3. Whether the age of the deceased was 57 years and his salary @ per month was Rs. 15,000/- plus Rs. 200/- Khoraki (per day)?
4. Whether the petitioners being dependent of the deceased are entitled to get Rs. 14,00,000/- (fourteen lakh) plus funeral expenses?
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M.A. 133 of 2021
Prasad Yadav, who was driver of the vehicle of the O.P. 1, on the date of the occurrence, as per the direction of the O.P. no. 1 only, he was going to Tandwa with empty truck, which got stuck in a ditch and the deceased was employee of the O.P. No. 1. Learned tribunal then took up issue no. 2 and after considering the evidence in the record, came to the conclusion that in the absence of any documents, it would be proper to assess the income of the deceased that Rs. 8060/per month, on the basis of the notification no. 1484 dated 14.08.2015 issued by the Labour, Employment and Training, Government of Jharkhand, wherein the minimum wages for different categories has been mentioned.
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M.A. 133 of 2021
and award be modified by enhancing the compensation payable to the claimants after formulating appropriate substantial question of law.
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M.A. 133 of 2021
of the deceased and no evidence has been put forth to enable the Commissioner to assess the income of the deceased from the wealth possessed by the deceased. Even the bank account details or any other material from which the Commissioner, could have got an inkling to assess the income of the deceased was placed before the Commissioner, without any plausible. Under such circumstances, in the absence of any documentary evidence whatsoever, the act of the Commissioner, Employee’s Compensation-cum-Labour Court, Deoghar in assessing the monthly income of the deceased to be Rs.8,060/- per month plus Rs.5200/- per month as food allowance, in the considered opinion of this Court cannot be said to be perverse as the same has not been arrived at by Commissioner of Employee’s Compensation, by ignoring or excluding relevant material or by taking into consideration irrelevant material nor the finding so outrageously defies logic as to suffer from the vice of irrationality, incurring the blame of being perverse.
(Anil Kumar Choudhary, J.)
High Court of Jharkhand, Ranchi Dated, the 23rd March, 2023. Smita /AFR
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the impugned order assessing income below the claimants' assertion involves a substantial question of law.
Whether the Commissioner's assessment of income based on minimum wages in the absence of documentary evidence was perverse.
1 provisions across 1 enactments
Smt. Hemiya Devi
Lakki Kumari
Kiran Kumar Yadav
Reliance General Insurance Company Limited
Anil Kumar Choudhary
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
