Legal Reference Library

The Supreme Court in Golla Rajanna vs. The Divisional Manager, has held that the high court cannot reassess the percentage of disability recorded by a Workmen’s Compensation Commissioner as it is a pure question of fact and the scope of the appeal before the high court under Section 30 of the workmen’s compensation Act is only to substantial questions of law. Re-appreciating the evidence recorded by the Commissioner, the high court held that the disability would only be to the extent of 5% of the whole body, resulting in 5% of the loss of earning capacity. On appeal, a bench comprising Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice RF Nariman observed that under the scheme of the Act, being a welfare legislation, the Workmen’s Compensation Commissioner is the last authority on facts and scope of the appeal is restricted only to substantial questions of law. Setting aside the high court judgment, the court observed: “Unfortunately, the high court has missed this crucial question of limited jurisdict...

Delhi High Court has held that when a deaf and dumb witness is under cross-examination, the Court is required to take due care of the fact that vocabulary of such a person is limited as he or she speaks through sign language and it may not be possible for that witness to answer, or in detail explain every answer by sign language and this disability of a limited vocabulary of sign language does not affect either the competence or the credibility of such witness. Justice Mukta Gupta has made the above observation while disposing an Appeal filed by Accused convicted for the offence defined under Section 9(k), punishable under Section 10 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2002, for sexually assaulting a 12 yr old deaf and dumb girl. The twin arguments raised by Counsel for the appellant are that since the prosecutrix could not be cross-examined her testimony cannot be read in evidence and even if the offence is proved against the appellant, the same would fall under Se...