Case: General Manager, B. E. S. T.Undertaking, Bombay Vs. Mrs. Agnes

2. The Bombay Municipal Corporation, hereinafter called the Corporation, runs a public utility transport service in Greater Bombay and the said transport service is managed by a Committee known as the Bombay Electricity Supply and Transport Committee. The said Committee conducts the transport service in the name of Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking. The Undertaking owns a number of buses and the Corporation employees a staff, including bus drivers, for conducting the said service. One P. Nanu Raman was one of such bus drivers employed by the corporation. There are various depots in different parts of the City wherein buses feeding that part are garaged and maintained. A bus driver has to drive a bus allotted to him from morning till evening with necessary intervals, and for that purpose he has to reach the depot concerned early in the morning and go back to his home after his work is finished and the bus is lodged in the depot.The efficiency of the service depends, inter alia, on the facility given to a driver for his journey to and from his house and the depot. Presumably for that reason Rule 19 of the Standing Rules of the Bombay Municipality B. E. S. T. Undertaking permits a specified number of the traffic outdoor staff in uniform to travel standing in a bus without payment of fares. Having regard to the long distances to be covered in a city like Bombay, the statutory right conferred under the rule is conducive to the efficiency of the service. On July 20, 1957, the said Nanu Raman finished his work for the day at about 7.45 p.m. at Jogeshwari bus depot. After leaving the bus in the depot, he boarded another bus in order to go to his residence at Santa Cruz. The said bus collided with a stationary lorry parked at an awkward angle on Ghodbunder Road near Erla Bridge, Andheri. As a result of the said collision, Nanu Raman was thrown out on the road and injured. He was removed to hospital for treatment where he expired on July 26, 1957. The respondent, his widow filed an application in the Court of the Commissioner for Workmens Compensation, Bombay, claiming a sum of Rs. 3,500/- as compensation by reason of the death of her husband in an accident alleged to have arisen "out of and in the course of his employment". To that application the General manager of the B. E. S. T. Undertaking, Bombay, was made the respondent, and he contended, inter alia, that the accident did not arise "out of and in the course of the employment" of the deceased. The Commissioner dismissed the application accepting the contention of the General Manger of the B. E. S. T. Undertaking. On appeal, the High Court of Bombay held that the said accident arose "out of and in the course of the employment" of the said deceased and, on that finding, passed a decree in favour of the widow for a sum of Rs. 3,500/- with costs. The General Manager of the B. E. S. T. Undertaking has preferred the present appeal against the order of the High Court.

Reasoning:
12. Under S. 3 (1) of the Act the injury must be caused to the workman by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. The question, when does an employment begin and when does it cease, depends upon the facts of each case. But the Courts have agreed that the employment does not necessarily end when the "down tool" signal is given or when the workman leaves the actual workshop where he is working. There is a notional extension at both the entry and exit by time and space. The scope of such extension must necessarily depend on the circumstances of a given case. As employment may end or may begin not only when the employee begins to work or leaves his tools but also when he used the means of access and egress to and from the place of employment. A contractual duty or obligation on the part of an employee to use only a particular means of transport extends the area of the field of employment to the course of the said transport. Though at the beginning the word "duty" has been strictly construed, the later decisions have liberalized this concept. A theoretical option to take an alternative route may not detract from such a duty if the accepted one is of proved necessity or of practical compulsion. But none of the decisions cited at the Bar deals with a transport service operating over a large area like Bombay. They are therefore, of little assistance, except in so far as they laid down the principles of general application. Indeed, some of the law Lords expressly excluded from the scope of their discussion cases where the exigencies of work compel an employee to traverse public streets and other public places. The problem that now arises before us is a novel one and is not covered by authority.13. At this stage to appreciate the scope of "duty" of a bus driver in its wider sense, the relevant Standing Rules of the B. E. S. T. Undertaking may be scrutinized. We are extracting only the rules made in regard to permanent bus drivers material to the presentbus driver is recruited to the service of the B. E. S. T. Undertaking. Before appointment the rules and regulations of the Undertaking are explained to him and he enters into an agreement with the Undertaking on the basis of those terms. He is allotted to one depot, but he may be transferred to another depot. The working hours are fixed at 8 hours a day and he is under a duty to appear punctually at the depot at the calling time. If he is late by more than one hour he will be marked absent. If he does not appear at the calling time or "misses his car", he will not be given any work for the day unless there is actually work available for him. If he "misses his car" more than three times in a moth, he will be reverted to the extra list, i.e., the list of employees other than permanent. He is given a uniform. He is permitted to travel free of charge in a bus in the said uniform. So long as he is in the uniform he can only travel in the bus standing and he cannot occupy a seat even on payment of the prescribed fare, indicating thereby that he is travelling in that bus only in his capacity as bus driver of the Undertaking. He can also be transferred to different depots. It is manifest from the aforesaid rules that the timings are of paramount importance in the days work of bus driver.If he misses his car he will be punished. If he is late by more than one hour he will be marked absent for the day; and if he is absent for 3 days in a month, he will be taken out of the permanent list. Presumably to enable him to keep up punctuality and to discharge his onerous obligations, he is given the facility in his capacity as a driver to travel in any bus belonging to the Undertaking. Therefore, the right to travel in the bus in order to discharge his duties punctually and efficiently is a condition of his service.14. Bombay is a City of distances. The transport service practically covers the entire area of Greater Bombay. Without the said right, it would be very difficult for a driver to sign on and sign off at the depots at the schedule timings, for he has to traverse a long distance. But for this right, not only punctuality and timings cannot be maintained, but his efficiency will also suffer. D. W. 1, a Traffic Inspectors of B. E. S. T. Undertaking, says that instructions are given to all the drivers and conductors that they can travel in other buses. This supports the practice of the drivers using the buses for their travel from home to the depot and vice versa. Having regard to the class of employees it would be futile to suggest that they could as well go by local suburban trains or by walking. The former, they could not afford, and the later, having regard to the long distances involved would not be practicable. As the free transport is provided in the interest of service, having regard to the long distance a driver has to traverse to go to the depot from his house and vice versa, the user of the said buses is a proved necessity giving rise to an implied obligation on his part to travel in the said buses as a part of his duty. He is not exercising the right as a member of the public, but only as one belonging to a service. The entire Greater Bombay is the field or area of the service and every bus is an integrated part of the service. The decisions relating to accidents occurring to an employee in a factory or in premises belonging to the employer providing ingress or egress to the factory are not of much relevance to a case where an employee has to operate over a larger area in a bus which is in itself an integrated part of a fleet of buses operating in the entire area. Though the doctrine of reasonable or notional extension of employment developed in the context of specific workshop factories or harbours, equally applies to such a bus service, the doctrine necessarily will have to be adopted to meet its peculiar requirements. While in a case of a factory, the premises of the employer which gives ingress or egress to the factory is a limited one, in the case of a city transport service, by analogy, the entire fleet of buses forming the service would be the "premises". An illustration may make our point clear. Suppose, in view of the long distances to be covered by the employees, the Corporation, as a condition of service, provides a bus for collecting all the drivers from their houses so that they may reach their depots in time and to take them back after the days work so that after the heavy work till about 7 p.m. they may reach their homes without further strain on their health. Can it be said that the said facility is not one given in the course of employment? It can even be said that it is the duty of the employees in the interest of the service to utilize the said bus both for coming to the depot and going back to their homes. If that be so, what difference would it make if the employer, instead of providing a separate bus, throws open his entire fleet of buses for giving the employees the said facility? They are given that facility not as members of the public but as employees; not as a grace but as of right because efficiency of the service demands it.We would, therefore, hold that when a driver when going home from the depot or coming to the depot uses the bus, any accident that happens to him is an accident in the course of his employment.15. We, therefore, agree with the High Court that the accident occurred to Nanu Raman during the course of his employment and therefore his wife is entitled to compensation. No attempt was made to question the correctness of the quantum of compensation fixed by the High Court.