The judgment establishes the principle that for an accident to be compensable under the Workmen's Compensation Act, there must be a causal relationship between the accident and the employment.

P. K. MISRA, J.

( 1 ) THE insurer has filed this appeal under section 30 of the Workmen's Compensation Act challenging the judgment passed by the Commissioner for workmen's Compensation-cum-Deputy labour Commissioner, Cuttack (for short, 'the Commissioner' ).

( 2 ) CLAIMANT-RESPONDENT No. 1 is the widow of late Dhruba Charan Dehwari and claimant-respondent Nos. 2 and 3 are the parents of the deceased. The deceased was employed as a driver in truck bearing No. OR 05-3915 belonging to respondent No. 4. The said truck was going from Cuttack to Burla being loaded with Amul Spray. On the way the vehicle was waylaid by culprits and the consignment of the Amul spray was looted and subsequently from a nearby place, the body of the deceased driver was recovered. The claim application was filed by the widow and the parents of the deceased alleging that death had occurred in an accident arising out of and in course of employment.

( 3 ) THE owner filed written statement admitting about the employment. It was stated by him that the deceased was getting a sum of Rs. 1,800 per month towards salary and Rs. 15 per day towards feeding allowance. It was further stated that compensation, if any, should be paid by the insurance company. The insurance company filed written statement denying in general terms the allegations made in the claim application.

( 4 ) THE Commissioner found that the deceased was an employee under present respondent No. 4 and had died because of the attack by the miscreants. Accordingly, the Commissioner directed payment of compensation by the insurance company.

( 5 ) IN this appeal, it is contended that the death of the deceased had nothing to do with his employment as even according to the case of the claimants the deceased had been waylaid and killed by the miscreants. In other words, it is contended that death did not arise out of the employment of the deceased.

( 6 ) FROM the materials on record, it appears that the truck in question had been waylaid on the way to Burla by miscreants and the driver was killed. It is evident that the driver became a victim of the offence at a time he was engaged in discharging the duties assigned to him. The deceased would not have faced such a situation if he would not have been driving the vehicle for and on behalf of the employer at the time of the incident. Thus, prima facie, it appears that there was causal relationship between the death and the employment of the deceased as a truck driver, as the deceased happened to be at the place of occurrence due to his engagement as a driver.

( 7 ) THE learned counsel appearing for appellant has placed reliance upon the decisions of the Apex Court in Mackinnon mackenzie and Co. Pvt. Ltd. v. Ibrahim mahmmod Issak, 1969 ACJ 422 (SC) and employees' State Insurance Corporation v. Francis De Costa, 1996 ACJ 1281 (SC)and the decision of the Madras High Court in Special Officer, P. A. P. Workers' Industrial Co-op. Society Ltd. v. Ayyammal, 1994 ACJ 1225 (Madras ). In the decision in Mackinnon Mackenzie and Co. v. Ibrahim Mahmmod Issak (supra), it was observed at pp. 425-26:" (5) To come within the Act the injury by accident must arise both out of and in the course of employment. The words 'in the course of the employment' mean 'in the course of the work which the workman is employed to do and which is incidental to it'. The words 'arising out of employment' are understood to mean that 'during the course of the employment, injury has resulted from some risk incidental to the duties of the service, which, unless engaged in the duty owing to the master, it is reasonable to believe the workman would not otherwise have suffered'. In other words, there must be a causal relationship between the accident and the employment. The expression 'arising out of employment' is again not confined to the mere nature of the employment. The expression applies to employment as such to its nature, its conditions, its obligations and its incidents. If by reason of a