FAO No. 136 of 1988 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH -- FAO No. 136 of 1988 Date of decision: November 10, 2009 Som Nath ........ Appellant Versus Sohan Singh and another .......Respondent(s) Coram: Hon'ble Ms Justice Nirmaljit Kaur -.- Present: Mr. M.L.Saini, Advocate for the appellant Mr. Inderjit Sharma, Advocate for the respondents -.- 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgement? 2. To be referred to the Reporter or not? 3. Whether the judgement should be reported in the Digest? Nirmaljit Kaur, J. (Oral) This is an appeal against the judgement dated 24.08.1987 passed by the Commissioner, Under the Workmen's Compensation Act,1923, Jalandhar. The facts in short are that the appellant sustained injuries on account of accident having occurred during the course of his employment vide which he suffered permanent disability and loss of earning capacity to the extent of 80%. In the aforesaid accident, there was a regular imputation FAO No. 136 of 1988 2 of right upper arm of the appellant. The Commissioner, accordingly, granted the compensation to the tune of Rs.86,112/- vide judgement dated 24.08.1987. Learned counsel for the appellant has challenged the aforesaid order on two grounds. Firstly, the Commissioner, while granting compensation has not applied schedule IV as detailed in Section 4 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923. Section 4 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 reads as under:- “4. Amount of compensation:- (1) subject to the provisions of this Act, the amount of compensation shall be as follows, namely:- a) where death results from the injury An amount equal to 50% of the monthly wages of the deceased workman multiplied by the relevant factor Or An amount of Rs.80,000/- whichever is more; b) where permanent total disablement results from the injury An amount equal to 60% of the monthly wages of the injured workman multiplied by the relevant factor; Or an amount of 90,000/- which ever is more; As per Scheduled IV of Section 4, a person who is completed 26 years of age, shall be granted compensation with a multiplier at the rate of 215.28. Whereas, it is evident from the reading of the Section 4 that permanent total disablement which results from the injury, the compensation is to be granted by calculating the amount of each of the 60% of monthly wages of the injured workman and multiplied by the relevant factor or an amount Rs.90,000/- which ever is more. The Tribunal, however, calculated FAO No. 136 of 1988 3 the amount of compensation at the rate of 50% of the monthly salary of the employee, which is not in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Learned counsel for the respondents although is not able to dispute this factual legal position, stated that suitable compensation has already been granted to the appellant. Learned counsel for the parties have been heard. After going through the aforesaid Section, it is apparent that instead of granting compensation equal to 60% of the month wages of the injured workman multiplied by the relevant factor, the same has been granted at the rate of 50% of the equal monthly salary of the injured. If the schedule IV and formula provided in Section 4, referred to above, is correctly applied, the amount of compensation so calculated by the Tribunal would come to Rs.1,29,000/- approximately. Secondly, learned counsel for the appellant states that the appellant is also aggrieved with the fact that no interest was awarded by the Tribunal while granting the compensation. I find merit in the argument raised by learned counsel for the appellant as there is no reason as to why interest should not have been granted on the amount of compensation. In view of the foregoing discussion, the appeal is allowed and the amount of compensation so awarded by the Tribunal is enhanced from Rs.86,112/- to Rs.1,29,000/- along with interest on the amount already awarded by the tribunal vide impugned award, at the rate of 9% to be calculated from the date of award till it was actually realised. The enhanced amount of compensation shall be paid to the appellant within 30 days from FAO No. 136 of 1988 4 the date of receipt of certified copy of this order. In case of default in making the payment of enhanced amount, interest at the rate of 9% shall be paid on the enhanced amount to the appellant from the expiry of 30 days till its realisation. Disposed of accordingly. (Nirmaljit Kaur) Judge November 10, 2009 mohan