While directing the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to pay insurance claim to a 40-year-old widow, the Bombay high court recently held that death due to heart attack at workplace amounts to “employment injury”.
A division bench comprising Justices V.M. Kanade and K.R. Shriram in their order dated September 5 observed that “it was an unfortunate case of a widow having to knock at the doors of the high court to recover insurance claim from ESIC for the death of her husband who was working as a fitter and a meagre salary of `6,500 per month”.
Bharguram Mahadik was registered under the ESIS scheme by his employers. He reported for duty on March 27, 2012 at 8.30 am and at around 8.45 am he complained of chest pain and his colleagues took him to a resting area within the factory premises and asked him to rest for a while. As his condition started deteriorating at around 10.45 am, he was rushed to Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation General Hospital (NMMC) at Vashi. The provisional cause of death issued the same day mentions he was “brought dead” to the hospital. Mahadik was declared as dead by the medical officer of NMMC hospital and the cause of death was mentioned as “acute myocardial infarction”.
Mahadik’s employer raised a claim for the dependents under the ESI Act and the same with supporting documents were filed with the ESIC office on April 11, 2012. However, ESIC rejected the claim stating the injury sustained by the employee could not be treated as an employment injury under the Act. It further said that he had died of natural causes and the death was not related to the stress at work. His wife and petitioner Bhagyashree submitted before the court that her husband died while in the factory where he was working and it was only during the course of employment. She further submitted that her husband was covered under the ESIC scheme.
The court also relied upon a Madras high court order in which a similar issue arose and the judgment had gone in favour of the wife. “The respondents are directed to settle the eligible dependents benefits in favour of the petitioner in accordance with the law. The amount payable shall be calculated and paid to the petitioner within a period of four weeks,” ruled the bench.