1 S.85B of the Employees' State Insurance Act , 1948 empowers the Employees' State Insurance Corporation to recover from the employer such damages not exceeding the amount of arrears as it may think fit to impose. Is the damages that could be so imposed conceived as compensation for the actual loss caused to the Corporation? That is the question that is posed before us by learned counsel for the Corporation, Sri. Sankaran Nair.

2 Four orders of imposition of damages under S.45B were challenged by the respondent before the Insurance Court, Alleppey and the court has chosen to accept the challenge on the only ground that the Corporation "has not adduced an iota of evidence in order to prove that inconvenience was caused either to the Corporation or to the beneficiaries because of the delay committed by the applicant in paying the amounts due to the Corporation." At the moment we are not at the question of quantum. There is no doubt a contention that the question whether quantum has been properly determined calls for consideration. In case we agree with the appellant's counsel that the court was wrong in holding that damages would be due only on account of actual loss we may have to