The court emphasized the liberal construction of labour statutes in favor of employees and the need to protect workmen from accidents at their place of work.

JUDGMENT

Manoj Kumar Ohri, J.

1. By way of the present appeal filed under Section 30(1)(a) of the Employees' Compensation Act, 1923 (hereinafter, the `EC Act'), the appellants seek setting aside of order dated 29.06.2017 passed by learned Commissioner, Employees' Compensation in Claim No.WC/219/NW/2015/106, whereby the respondent's claim petition seeking injury compensation was allowed and the appellants directed to pay Rs.10,69,008/- alongwith interest @ 12% p.a. from 28.12.2012 till realization within 30 days of receipt of the order.

2. Mr. Rajat Wadhwa, learned counsel for the appellants, contended that the claim petition was filed by the respondent after three years of the incident and the learned Commissioner erred in condoning the delay of 11 months in filing thereof in absence of any sufficient explanation. He further contended that the respondent failed to establish employee-employer relationship between himself and the appellants. Lastly, while drawing attention to Schedule-2 clause (xxxi) of the EC Act, it was contended that since the respondent suffered the alleged accident while working outside a `building', he is not covered by the definition of `employee' in terms of Section 2(1)(dd) of the EC Act.

In support of his contentions, learned counsel placed reliance on the decision of the Supreme Court in Roop Singh Negi v. Punjab National Bank and Others, reported as (2009) 2 SCC 570 as well as the decisions of this Court in Automobile Assoc. Upper India v. P.O. Labour Court II & Anr. reported as 2006 SCC OnLine Del 303 and Vishwanth Pandey v. M/s. Madan Gopal Keshav Chandra reported as 2016 SCC OnLine Del 5336.

3. Learned counsel for the respondent, on the other hand, supported the impugned order. It was submitted that in their written statement filed before the learned Commissioner, the appellants had admitted that they organized weekly markets in various sectors of Rohini including Sector-18, wherein the incident in question has occurred.

In support of his contentions, learned counsel placed reliance on the decision of this Court in United India Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Rajender Singh & Anr. reported as 2017 SCC OnLine Del 11340 and on the decision of the Gujarat High Court in Koli Mansukh Rana v. Patel Natha Ramji reported as 1990 SCC OnLine Guj 164.

4. I have heard learned counsels for the parties and have also gone through the material placed on record.

5. There is no gainsaying that labour statutes such as the EC Act constitute `beneficial legislation' for the welfare of employees and should be liberally construed in their favour. In this regard, the Supreme Court in Jaya Biswal and Others v. Branch Manager, IFFCO Tokio General Insurance Company Limited and Another reported as (2016) 11 SCC 201 has opined as under:

"20.The EC Act is a welfare legislation enacted to secure compensation to the poor workmen who suffer from injuries at their place of work. This becomes clear from a perusal of the preamble of the Act which reads as under:

"An Act to provide for the payment by certain classes of employers to their workmen of compensation for injury by accident."

This further becomes clear from a perusal of the Statement of Objects and Reasons, which reads as under:

"...The growing complexity of industry in this country, with the increasing use of machinery and consequent danger to workmen, alongwith the comparative poverty of the workmen themselves, renders it advisable that they should be protected, as far as possible, from hardship arising from accidents.

An additional advantage of legislation of this type is that, by increasing the importance for the employer of adequate safety devices, it reduces the number of accidents to workmen in a manner that cannot be achieved by official inspection. Further, the encouragement given to employers to provide adequate medical treatment for their workmen should mitigate the effects to such accidents as do occur. The benefits so conferred on the workman added to the increased sense of