New Delhi: Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel can be treated as workman’ and claim compensation for injury suffered on duty under the Employee’s Compensation Act, 1923 despite it being an armed force of the Union, the Supreme Court has ruled.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Manoj Misra dismissed an appeal filed by a commanding officer of
the Railway Protection
Special Force (RPSF), a unit of RPF, challenging the 2016 order of the Gujarat High Court which had upheld the compensation awarded by the Workmen Compensation Commissioner to the kin of a constable, who died on duty.
Justice Misra, who penned the verdict on behalf of the bench, formulated two questions including whether an RPF constable can be treated as a workman under the 1923 law, even though he was a member of the armed forces of the Union by virtue of the Railway Protection Force Act, 1957.
The bench, after perusing various provisions and Acts, said, “In our considered view, despite declaring RPF as an armed force of the Union, the legislative intent was not there to exclude its members or their heirs from the benefits of compensation payable under the 1923 Act or the Railways Act, 1989.”
The top court rejected the RPF’s contention that the compensation claim of heirs of the deceased constable was not maintainable as he was in the armed force of the Union and can’t be treated as a workman under the 1923 law.
It said the right of a person to claim compensation under the law was subject to the condition that he shall not be entitled to claim compensation more than once in respect of the same accident.
“In the instant case, there is nothing to indicate that the respondent’s (wife of constable) claim under the 1923 Act was made after receiving compensation for the same accident under any other Act or law,” the bench said, in its order dated September 26.