Employee can't claim over Rs 8,000 if injured while in service: Madras HC

Madurai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday ruled that no one injured permanently while in service can claim over Rs 8,000 per month, even if he or she were drawing over the amount as salary.

Justice S Vaidyanathan cited a government order (GO) issued under the Minimum Wages Act while rejecting an appeal of Sekar against the order of the Joint Commissioner of Labour who awarded a compensation of Rs 8,000 as wages instead of fixing 100 per cent of his last drawn wages.

According to the GO, even if the salary of a person permanently injured while working exceeds Rs 8,000, the compensation should be fixed as if the monthly wages were only Rs 8,000 and not above.

Though a new notification has been issued by the central government on January 3, 2020, enhancing the monthly wages for such persons from Rs 8,000 to Rs 15,000, the increased amount cannot be given to the appellant as the notification issued on May 31, 2010, had fixed the monthly wages as Rs 8,000 at the time of accident.

Justice Vaidyanathan of the court’s Madurai bench said the issue raised on the enhancement of wages had been rightly answered by the authority and the court finds no reason whatsoever to interfere with the finding and rejected the appeal.

The court cannot exercise the legislative powers and fix any amount, as it thinks it fit on account of the fact that the claim does not fall under the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, the judge said.

The petitioner, who worked in the State Express Transport Corporation, submitted that the wages should be taken as Rs 12,000 which he was earning while fixing the wages, but the judge rejected the appeal.