1. The appellants’ herein are assailing order dated 15.02.2007 passed in W.C.No.128 of 2004 by the Commissioner for Workmens’ Compensation and Assistant Commissioner of Labour, Vijayawada (‘the lower authority’, for brevity). The first appellant is the wife of Bangaru Madhusudhan Rao (the deceased), who died on 12.07.2004 while driving a trailer bearing registration No.KA 08 B 5279. The second appellant herein is the son of the deceased and the first appellant. The third appellant is the father of the deceased.

They filed an application under Section 22 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923 (‘the Act’, for brevity) claiming a compensation of Rs.3,50,000/- before the lower authority for the death of the deceased. The first respondent is the owner of the said trailer and the second respondent is the Insurance Company with which the trailer was insured during the relevant period.

2. The brief facts of the case are as follows:-

The deceased was working as the driver under the first respondent on a monthly salary of Rs.4,000/-. The said trailer, with 18 tyres and of 40 feet length, was loaded with steel reels at Visakhapatnam. The deceased, another driver – S.K.Basha and one Thota Phanindra – cleaner were in the cabin of the trailer. S.K.Basha had driven he trailer from Visakhapatnam. Before reaching Vijayawada, at about 10:30 A.M., the deceased had taken over the charge of driving of the said trailer. The destination of the trailer was Mumbai and the journey was already delayed by seven to eight hours. The first respondent threatened that if the trailer did not reach Mumbai as per the scheduled time, the drivers would not be paid commission. The deceased got filled the diesel tank at a Petrol Bunk at Jawahar Auto Nagar, Vijayawada. While the deceased was on the steering, at the said Petrol Bunk itself, he fell on the steering. Then, A.W.3 – Thota Phanindra, the cleaner, shifted the deceased to Citi Cardiac Hospital, Vijayawada, wherein, the doctors declared him as brought dead. Then A.W.3 lodged a complaint with the police, Patamata P.S., who registered a case in Crime No.338 of 2009 under Section 174 Cr.P.C. Postmortem examination was done at the University Government Hospital, Vijayawada. The appellants, contending that the deceased died due to massive cardiac arrest – as result of stress and strain caused during the course of his employment and the respondents are liable to pay compensation, claimed compensation. The first respondent filed counter and admitted that the deceased was working as driver under him and that he had instructed the deceased to handover the goods at Mumbai within the stipulated time covering the late caused by another driver and that the deceased was having valid lorry driving license on the date of the incident.

3. The second respondent – Insurance Company filed counter and denied the material allegations contending inter alia that there is no nexus between the employment of the deceased and the death of the deceased. It is also their case that the deceased was suffering from ill health and heart ailment prior to the date of incident and that the compensation claimed is highly excessive, arbitrary and unjust.

4. Before the lower authority, B.Koteswaramma – the first appellant herein was examined as A.W.1. She deposed that her husband was driving the trailer during the relevant time and that there was lot of pressure on him to reach Mumbai within time as directed by the first respondent and that the deceased was under stress and strain and that he was traveling from the long distance from Visakhapatnam and died due to massive heart attack during the course of his employment. She filed notarized copies of FIR, Postmortem Report, Inquest report, Driving License, Bill of Loading and Insurance Policy, which were marked as Exs.A.1 to A.6 respectively. She was cross-examined at length to elicit that she does not know whether the Postmortem Report contain any information with regard to the cause