Madras High Court: The Bench of T. Ravindran, J. set aside the order of Deputy Commissioner of Labour whereby he had set aside the earlier order for compensation passed ex-parte in favour of the petitioner herein.
Petitioner suffered injuries at his workplace and sought compensation from the respondent. The Deputy Commissioner, by an ex-parte order, awarded him a compensation of Rs 2,39,380. The respondent contended that it was not able to appear before the Authority due to communication gap and wrong noting of dates of hearing. The Deputy Commissioner allowed the application of respondent ad set aside it earlier order. Aggrieved thereby, the petitioner filed the present civil revision petition.
After perusing the entire record, the High Court found that the Deputy Commissioner did not properly appreciate petitioner’s submission that the earlier order was not an ex-parte order but was one passed on merits. Furthermore, the respondent did not place nay evidence to substantiate the cause of non-appearance pleaded by it. The very basis of the cause projected by the respondent was not established in any manner. The Court held that in such case, the Deputy Commissioner should not have entertained the respondent’s application. In such and other view of the matter, the petition was allowed and the impugned order was set aside. [S. Dhanasekaran v. Sree Nithyakalyani Textile Ltd., 2018 SCC OnLine Mad 4910, Order dated 18-12-2018]