JUDGMENT :- This is an appeal preferred against the order made by the Court of Additional Commissioner for Workmens Compensation Madras, in W.C.C. No. 147 of 1950.

2. The facts are : The appellant Sitharama Reddiar is a petty ryot of North Arcot District owning 4 acres of dry lands. There was a small well in his field. On account of the failure of monsoon for 4 years in succession, the well had got dried up. Therefore, he deepened it with a band of diggers of whom the respondent Ayyaswami Goundar was one. The digging operations started in February 1948. The appellant or his father supervised the work.

They paid the diggers advance at 12 annas plus 1½ measures of rice every day and supplied them with gun powder for dynamiting the rocks. On 26-3-1949 when dynamite was urged for digging operations it resulted in explosion. The respondent was injured. He was taken to the hospital and his right arm was amputated upto his elbow and he lost three fingers in his left hand.

Thereupon this respondent preferred an application before the Additional Commissioner for Workmens Compensation which was summarily rejected on the ground that the respondent was not a workman as defined in S. 2(1)