1. Short title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Personal Injuries
(Emergency Provisions) Act, 1962.
(2) It extends to the whole of India.
(3) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 26th day of October, 1962.
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(1) “civil defence organisation” means any organisation established for civil defence purposes
which is declared by a scheme to be a civil defence organisation for the purposes of this Act and the
scheme;
(2) “civil defence volunteer”, in relation to an injury, means a person certified, by an officer of a
civil defence organisation authorised by the Central Government to grant such certificates, to have
been a member of that organisation at the time when the injury was sustained;
(3) “enemy” means—
(i) any person or country committing external aggression against India;
(ii) any person belonging to a country committing such aggression;
(iii) such other country as may be declared by the Central Government to be assisting the
country committing such aggression;
(iv) any person belonging to such other country;
(4) “gainfully occupied person” means a person who is engaged in any trade, business,
profession, office, employment or vocation and is wholly or substantially dependent thereon for a
livelihood, or a person who, though temporarily unemployed, is normally so engaged and dependent;
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[(5) “period of emergency” means, in relation to the Proclamation of Emergency issued under
clause (1) of article 352 of the Constitution,—
(i) on the 26th day of October, 1962, the period beginning with the 26th day of October,
1962, and ending with the 10th day of January, 1968, that is to say, the date on which the said
Emergency was declared, by notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Home
Affairs, No. G.S.R. 93, dated the 10th January, 1968, to have come to an end;
(ii) on the 3rd day of December, 1971, the period beginning with the 3rd day of December,
1971, and ending with such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official
Gazette, declare to be the date on which the emergency shall come to an end;]
(6) “personal injury” means a physical or mental injury or a disease whether manifesting itself
immediately or subsequently—
(a) caused by—
(i) the discharge of any missile (including liquid or gas or both), or
(ii) the use of any weapon, explosive or other noxious thing, or
(iii) the doing of any other injurious act,
1. Subs. by Act 74 of 1971, s. 2, for clause (5) (w.e.f. 25-12-1971).
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either by the enemy or in combating the enemy or in repelling an imagined attack by the enemy; or
(b) caused by the impact, on any person or property, of any enemy aircraft or any aircraft
belonging to or held by any person on behalf of or for the benefit of the Government of India or
any allied power, or any part of, or anything dropped from, any such aircraft: or
(c) caused by any explosion or fire which involves any explosives or munitions or other
dangerous things, required for the purposes of defence against the enemy and which happens or is
caused by, through, or in connection with the manufacture, storage or transportation of any such
explosive, munition or other dangerous things;
(7) “personal service injury”, in relation to a civil defence volunteer, means any physical or
mental injury, or a disease whether manifesting itself immediately or subsequently, shown to the
satisfaction of the Central Government or other authority authorised to make payments under a
scheme, to have arisen out of and in the course of the performance by the volunteer of his duties as a
member of the civil defence organisation to which he belonged at the time when the injury was
sustained or the disease was contracted, and (except in the case of a personal injury) not to have
arisen out of, and in the course of, his employment in any other capacity:
Provided that before being so satisfied, the Central Government or other authority authorised to
make payments under a scheme shall have received from the civil defence organisation of which the
volunteer concerned was a member at the time when the injury was sustained or the disease was
contracted, a report, by an officer of the organisation authorised by the Central Government to make
such reports, about the injury or the disease in question;
(8) “scheme” means a scheme made under this Act.
3. Power to make schemes for relief in respect of personal injuries and personal service
injuries.—(1) The Central Government may make a scheme or schemes in accordance with the
provisions of this Act providing for the grant of relief in respect of the following injuries sustained during
the period of the emergency, namely:—
(a) personal injuries sustained by gainfully occupied persons (with such exceptions, if any, as
may be specified in the scheme) and by persons of such other classes as may be so specified; and
(b) personal service injuries sustained by civil defence volunteers.
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[Provided that different Schemes may be made in relation to different periods of emergency.]
(2) A scheme may authorise the Central Government or any authority authorised by the Central
Government to make payments under the scheme, in such circumstances and subject to such conditions as
may be specified in the scheme, to make to or in respect of persons injured, diseased or disabled due to
injuries or any desease—
(a) payments by way of temporary allowance, which shall be payable only so long as the person
injured or diseased is incapacitated for work by the injury or disease and has not received any such
payment as is mentioned in clause (b);
(b) payments otherwise than by way of temporary allowance, which shall be payable only where
the injury or disease causes serious and prolonged or permanent disablement or death; and
(c) payments for the purchase of or the grant at the cost of Government of artificial limbs or
surgical or other appliances and payments for medical and surgical treatment.
(3) A scheme may empower the Central Government to make regulations for giving effect to the
purposes of the scheme.
(4) A scheme may provide that it shall come into operation or shall be deemed to have come into
operation on such date as may be specified therein.
1. The proviso added by Act 74 of 1971, s. 3 (w.e.f. 25-12-1971).
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(5) A scheme may be amended or rescinded at any time by the Central Government.
(6) Any decision of the Central Government or other authority empowered to make payments under a
scheme as to the making, refusal of amount, or as to the continuance or discontinuance, of a payment
under a scheme may be varied from time to time, by a subsequent decision of the Central Government or
such authority, as the case may be, but save in so far as it is so varied shall be final and conclusive.
(7) Every scheme and every regulation made under a scheme, shall be laid, as soon as may be after it
is made, before each House of Parliament while it is in session for a total period of thirty days which may
be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if before the expiry of the session
in which it is so laid or the successive sessions aforesaid, both Houses agree in making any modification
in the scheme or the regulation or both Houses agree that the scheme or the regulation should not be
made, the scheme or the regulation shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no
effect, as the case may be; so however that any suck modification or annulment shall be without prejudice
to the validity of anything previously done under that scheme or the regulation.
4. Relief from liability to pay compensation or damages.—(1) In respect of a personal injury
sustained during the period of the emergency by any other person, and in respect of a personal service
injury sustained during that period by a civil defence volunteer, no such compensation or damages shall
be payable, whether to the person injured or to any other person, as part from the provisions of this
sub-section—
(a) would be payable under—
(i) the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923 (8 of 1923), or
(ii) the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 (34 of 1948); or
(b) would, whether by virtue of any enactment or by virtue of any contract or any custom or
usage having the force of law, be payable—
(i) in the case of a personal injury, by any person, or
(ii) in the case of a personal service injury sustained by a civil defence volunteer, by the
employer of the volunteer, or by any person who has any responsibility in connection with the
volunteer’s duties as such or by any other civil defence volunteer,
on the ground that the injury in question was attributable to some negligence, nuisance or breach of duty
for which the person by whom the compensation or damages would be payable is responsible.
(2) The failure to give a notice or make a claim or commence proceedings within the time required by
any enactment shall not be a bar to the maintenance of proceedings in respect of any personal injury or
personal service injury, if—
(a) an application for a payment under a scheme has been duly made to the Central Government
or other authority empowered to make payments under the scheme in respect of the injury; and
(b) the court or other authority before which the proceedings, are brought, is satisfied that the said
application was made in the reasonable belief that the injury was such that a payment could be made
under the scheme; and
(c) the Central Government or other authority empowered to make payments under the scheme
certifies that the application was rejected, or that payments made in pursuance of the application were
discontinued, on the ground that the injury was not such an injury; and
(d) the proceedings are commenced within one month from the date of the said certificate.
5. Information as to earnings.—(1) Where it is necessary, in order to determine the amount of any
payment to be awarded under a scheme in respect of any personal injury or personal service injury, to
ascertain the earnings of the person injured in respect of any period before he sustained the personal
injury or the personal service injury, the Central Government or other authority authorised to make
payments under the scheme may, by notice in writing, require—
(a) any person who was an employer of the injured person during that, period; or
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(b) any other person having any knowledge with respect to the financial circumstances of the
injured person during that period,
to furnish in accordance with the notice any information in his possession relating to those earnings or
circumstances, and to produce to any person specified in the notice any wage books, records or other
documents in his possession containing entries with respect to those earnings.
(2) If any person—
(a) fails to comply with the requirements of any such notice, or
(b) in purported compliance with any such notice, knowingly or recklessly makes any untrue
statement or untrue representation, or produces any document which is false in a material particular or
calculated to deceive,
he shall be punishable with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees.
6. Medical attention in dispensaries and hospitals.—(1) The person managing any dispensary or
hospital shall, if so required by the Central or a State Government by general or special order,—
(a) provide at the dispensary or hospital medical and surgical treatment for persons who have
sustained injuries of the nature specified in sub-section (1) of section 3, and
(b) keep such records and make such returns relating to the persons treated for such injuries as
may be required by or under a scheme.
(2) If any person fails to comply, when so required, with the provisions of this section, he shall be
punishable with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.
7. Penalty for false statement.—Any person who, for the purpose of obtaining a payment or grant
under a scheme either for himself or for any other person, knowingly makes any untrue statement or
untrue representation shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to
three months.
8. Assignments or charges to be void.—Any assignment of, or charge on, and any agreement to
assign or charge, any payment awarded or to be awarded under a scheme shall be void, and, on the
insolvency of any person to whom such a payment has been awarded, the payment shall not pass to any
trustee or other person acting on behalf of the creditors.