Death Caused By Stress & Strain During Employment - Bombay High Court Directs Employer To Compensate

Justice NJ Jamadar held that the deceased driver's heart attack could be termed an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, as contemplated under Section 3 of the Workman's Compensation Act.

The bench thus set aside the Labour Court's order, allowed an appeal filed by the motorman's kin in 2007, and directed the travel company owner and insurance company to cough up Rs.2,78,260/- along with interest at the rate of 12% p.a. from December 3, 2003. The court also ordered the owner to pay costs of Rs. 25,000.

"I am persuaded to hold that in the facts of the instant case, the death of the deceased can be said to have been accelerated on account of the stress and strain associated with the long distance driving for almost 18 days in trying circumstances. Any other view of the matter would defeat the beneficial object of the provisions contained in Section 3 of the Employees Compensation Act,1923."

Facts of the Case

Deceased Vishakha Singh succumbed to coronary artery heart disease at Nashik, while driving the truck on his way back from Ranchi to Mumbai on November 3, 2003. The family asserted that Singh was continuously on the road for 17-18 days before the incident and died due to the stress and strain of employment.

The Labour Court held that the driver died due to natural causes. There was no evidence to connect his demise to his job as a driver, especially since no cleaner was examined. Merely being employed by the travel company at the time of his demise was not enough.

Observations

The High Court observed that the Commissioner and Labour Court had wrongly relied on Supreme Court's judgment in Shakuntala Chandrakant Shreshti vs. Prabhakar Maruti Garvali and refused relief to a cleaner who died of a heart attack.

The HC distinguished the two cases, observing that the cleaner's job is not stressful like a driver's job.

According to the judgement, while adjudicating such cases, the court must consider if stress and strain is arising during employment, what is the nature of employment and if the injury (in this case death) is aggravated due to stress and strain.

The court noted that the truck left Ranchi for Mumbai eight days prior to the incident, which means that the driver was expected to cover 1800 kms without any back-up driver.

The travel company owner Tarvinder Singh had testified that his drivers don't get tired as they take breaks. The deceased driver was healthy and didn't die due to work pressure.

"The aforesaid admissions, even if they can be called so, and even construed at par, do not erode the enormity of the situation, which a driver faces, on account of long and arduous journey, for almost 18 days, uninterrupted. The long distance driving for about 3600 kms. can be expected to generate stress and strain, even subconsciously," the court held.

Arguments

Advocate Amol Gatane for the petitioners argued that the Labour Court had recorded inconsistent findings in the judgement. While in the first half of the judgement, the court held that an employer-employee relationship was established, while deciding compensation entitlement, the court said that the aspect was not proved.

Advocate SM Dange for the insurer New India Assurance Co. Ltd. had supported the Labour Court's judgment. He argued that the deceased met with a natural death and there was next to no evidence to show that the deceased suffered any stress and strain of the driving. Also, the cleaner was not examined.

The HC held that the employer-employee relationship was established with the travel company accepting the driver as an employee and the insurer not explicitly denying the statement.

Case Title: Smt. Harvinder Kaur Vishakha Singh vs Tarvinder Singh K. Singh

Case No: FIRST APPEAL NO. 1476 OF 2007

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw(Bom) 13

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