Worker entitled to ESI benefits from date of employment: SC

The Supreme Court, in an important ruling, has held that a worker covered under
the Employees State Insurance (ESI) Act would be entitled to the benefits from the date of his
employment and not from the date of registration after contribution by the employer. A Bench, comprising
lustice S.S.M. Quadri and Justice Arijit Pasayat, allowing an appeal from Bharagath Engineering against a
judgment of the Madras High Court, made it clear that the date of payment of the contribution by the
employer to the ESI was not material to the issue. The Bench was of the view that the provisions of the
ESI Act cast a statutory obligation on the employer to insure its employees and that being a statutory
obligation, the date of commencement had to be from the date of employment.