Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 2: High Court has remanded the cases of the next of kins of deceased persons seeking compensation to Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC) Kupwara with the direction to him to decide their applications by giving the opportunity of hearing to the Border Security Forces (BSF).
The aggrieved persons had laid an application under the Employees Compensation Act accompanied by an application for condonation of delay before the Assistant Labour Commissioner Kupwara for grant of compensation (award) with interest for the alleged death of their relatives in an avalanche who worked as porters with BSF.
The petitioner-BSF however, contends that no claim is maintainable because they never hired the services of the deceased persons and their role in Forward Defended Localities (FDLs) at Kupwara is just to assist the Army, who engage and depute porters at their own level.
“…The case is remanded back to the authority below to decide the applications filed by the private respondents afresh after affording a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the parties”, Justice Rajesh Sekhri directed.
Petitioner-BSF has invoked writ jurisdiction for quashing of order dated 31stDecember, 2018, passed by Assistant Labour Commissioner Kupwara vide which applications filed by the aggrieved persons for condonation of delay to file an application under Employees Compensation Act, 1923 have been allowed without any lawful justification.
According to the petitioner-BSF, there was no employer-employee relationship between it and the deceased persons as they have never hired any porter throughout their stay or deployment at Kupwara and during deployment at various FDLs, the troops of the petitioner were under Army operational control who used to provide Porters.
Justice Sekhri said that no doubt, the courts have adopted liberal approach to condone the delay, however, the liberal construction of Section 5 of the Limitation Act cannot be stretched to a level of defeating the provision and to render the provision of Limitation Act non-existent. It is trite that a court cannot grant indulgence to condone the delay out of sheer benevolence, irrespective of the merits of plea to condonation.
“The law on the issue, as such, is trite that where a petition has been presented in the court beyond limitation, the applicant has to explain the court as to what was the sufficient cause which means an adequate and enough reason which prevented him to approach the court within limitation”, reads the combined judgment of four pleas.
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