78 Powers of Employees' Insurance Court

Powers of Employees' Insurance Court.

78. (1) The Employees' Insurance Court shall have all the powers of a Civil Court for the purposes of summoning and enforcing the attendance of witnesses, compelling the discovery and production of documents and material objects, administering oath and recording evidence and such Court shall be deemed to be a Civil Court within the meaning of section 195 and Chapter XXVI of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

(2) The Employees' Insurance Court shall follow such procedure as may be prescribed by rules made by the State Government.

(3) All costs incidental to any proceeding before an Employees' Insurance Court shall, subject to such rules as may be made in this behalf by the State Government, be in the discretion of the Court.

(4) An order of the Employees' Insurance Court shall be enforceable as if it were a decree passed in a suit by a Civil Court.

COMMENTS

Initiation of proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution cannot be thrown out on the sole ground of availability of an alternative remedy at the stage of appeal.-- S.C. Bose v. ESI Corporation 1991 (60) FLR 539.

The position of the ESI court is as that of domestic tribunal. The court has to decide the questions in regard to entitlement of disablement benefit and the claim for recovery of benefit and while deciding the court acts in the capacity of exercising original jurisdiction and not as a court of appeal or a civil court reviewing a decision of domestic tribunal-- 1992 (74) LT 280.