Heart attack is an accident, pay compensation of Rs 6.77 lakh

Labor Court: Order under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923

Aurangabad, May 25:

Taking into account the arguments of the petitioners that heart attack is an accident, the commissioner for workmen's compensation and labour court Judge VS Deshmukh ordered the truck owner and insurance company to jointly pay Rs 6.77 lakh with 12 per cent interest to the wife and heirs of the deceased truck driver Sahebrao Sarode.

The truck owner was also fined Rs 3.38 lakh by the court and also ordered to pay Rs 5,000 as expenses for Sarode's funeral and Rs 5,000 for the cost of application. Sarode had died of a heart attack at work. His wife Kamalbai, son Sachin and daughter Ashwini, had filed an application against truck owner Suresh Rajput and United India Insurance Company Ltd under the Workmen Compensation Act through advocate Sandeep B Rajebhosale in the Labour court. As per the application, Sahebrao was working as a driver on the truck of Rajput. He had a salary of Rs 10,000 per month. He had to drive the truck for 15 hours a day. His heirs claimed that he died of a heart attack due to work stress.

Meanwhile, the insurance company stated that Sarode's death is natural and not accidental, so the applicants are not eligible for compensation. The insurance company defended that the insurance policy of the truck was given only for accidents and did not apply for natural death. After the hearing, the court gave the above orders. Adv Rajebhosle was assisted by advocates Sudhir Ghongade, Vasudev Kulkarni, Dinesh Chavan, Samruddhi Deshmukh-Bhairav and Prashant Gaikwad.