Court No. - 50
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 37188 of 2019 Petitioner :- National Insurance Co. Ltd. Respondent :- Smt. Veerwati And 6 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Sushil Kumar Mehrotra
Hon'ble Salil Kumar Rai,J.
Heard the counsel for the petitioner.
The present writ petition has been filed against the order dated 19.9.2019 passed by the Permanent Lok Adalat, Pilibhit whereby the application of the opposite party for damages against the National Insurance Company as well as the Electricity Distribution Division for the death of Virendra Kumar has been entertained by the Permanent Lok Adalat and the objections of the petitioner regarding the jurisdiction of the Lok Adalat has been rejected.
It has been argued by the counsel for the petitioner that the Permanent Lok Adalat has no jurisdiction to hear the matter in view of Section 19(2) of the Employee's Compensation Act, 1923 (hereinafter referred to as, 'Act, 1923') and also because the opposite party had a remedy under Section 19(1) of the Act, 1923 before the concerned Commissioner.
I am not inclined to accept the aforesaid argument of the counsel for the petitioner.
Section 19(2) of the Act, 1923 only prohibits the civil court and the Permanent Lok Adalat is not a civil court for the purposes of the Act, 1923. Because of Section 22(C) of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, the existence of a remedy before the Commissioner under Section 19(1) of the Act, 1923 does not oust the jurisdiction of the Permanent Lok Adalat. The application of the opposite parties was maintainable and the Permanent Lok Adalat has rightly rejected the plea of the petitioner on the jurisdictional issue.
The writ petition lacks merit and is, hereby, dismissed.
Order Date :- 28.11.2019 Satyam