Judgment

SUBBA RAO, J. - This appeal by special leave raises a short but difficult question of the true construction of S. 3(1) of the Workmen s Compensation Act (8 of 1923), hereinafter called the Act, and its application to the facts of this case.

2. The Bombay Municipal Corporation, hereinafter called the Corporation, runs a public utility transport service in Greater Bombay and the said transport service is managed by a Committee known as the Bombay Electricity Supply and Transport Committee. The said Committee conducts the transport service in the name of Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking. The Undertaking owns a number of buses and the Corporation employees a staff, including bus drivers, for conducting the said service. One P. Nanu Raman was one of such bus drivers employed by the corporation. There are various depots in different parts of the City wherein buses feeding that part are garaged and maintained. A bus driver has to drive a bus allotted to him from morning till evening with necessary intervals, and for that purpose he has to reach the depot concerned early in the morning and go back to his home after his work is finished and the bus is lodged in the de