IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No.1463 of 2010 (O&M) Date of decision:25.03.2011 Smt. Sukhwinder Kaur and others ....Appellants versus Jarnail Singh and others ....Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mrs. Amandeep Soni, Advocate, for the appellants. Ms. Vandanaa Malhotra, Advocate, for respondent No.3 ---- 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? No. 2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? Yes. 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? Yes. ---- K.Kannan, J. (Oral) 1. The appeal is against an order of dismissal of an application for compensation filed under Section 163-A on a finding that the deceased was earning more than Rs.40,000/- and, therefore, in terms of the decision in Deepal Girish Bhai Soni & others Versus United India Insurance Company Limited-2004 ACJ 934., the petition could not be maintained. I do not want to detain the case any longer since the counsel states that the appellant will be prepared to file a petition under Section 166 and seek for a fresh adjudication. 2. Counsel for the Insurance Company states that the law prohibits a person from converting a petition under Section 163-A to be treated as petition under Section 166. This is not a plea by the counsel FAO No.1463 of 2010 (O&M) - 2 - for the appellants seeking for such conversion but, on the other hand, a plea for a proper adjudication on merits in an appropriate application being filed. So long as the dismissal of the claim was not rendered on merits but on an issue of maintainability under a particular provision, there cannot be any objection for a fresh petition to be filed under appropriate application. I, therefore, reject the contention of the counsel for the Insurance Company and grant to the appellants an opportunity as aforesaid. 3. The appeal is dismissed but subject to the liberty as aforesaid. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 25.03.2011 sanjeev