1. A question of some importance arises for consideration in this appeal filed by the State Insurance Department, the 2nd defendant in O. S. No. 156 of 1971, a suit for damages on the file of the Sub Court, Kottayam. The question is whether a person who accompanies the goods of his employer carried in a goods vehicle will be a person carried by the goods vehicle by reason of or in pursuance of a contract of employment' and whether the liability in respect of his death or bodily injury caused by or arising out of the use of the vehicle in a public place will be covered by the insurance of the vehicle against third party risks.

2. On 1812-1970 the Peroor Co-operative Society engaged the lorry, KLQ 2516, owned and operated by the 1st defendant A.V. George, for transporting provisions from the Food Corporation Sub Depot, Athirampuzha to Peroor. Mani the husband of the 1st plaintiff and the father of plaintiffs 2 to 6, an employee of the society, was put in charge of the transport of the goods from the Sub Depot to the Society's ration shop. On its way to Peroor with the provisions, the lorry capsized on the Ettumannur-Peroor public road. Mani was thrown out. Thought he was r