Notices of Accidents, Dangerous Occurrences and Diseases
Chapter Forty-Four
Syllabus topic 3.1, "Concept, definitions, registrations and Duties of Employer and Employee"
Pages 314 to 318 of 597
In one line
Three things must be reported: an accident that kills or keeps a worker off for forty-eight hours, a dangerous occurrence whether or not anybody is hurt, and a listed occupational disease, which the treating doctor must report too.
In exam wording: section 10 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 requires notice of an accident causing death or preventing the injured person from working for forty-eight hours or more; section 11 requires notice of a dangerous occurrence whether or not it causes injury; and section 12 requires the employer, and separately the qualified medical practitioner attending, to report a disease specified in the Third Schedule.
Why the law has these at all
Because safety regulation runs on information, and the person who has it is the person least keen to share it.
The three sections between them close three different gaps.
Section 10 catches the accident that has already hurt somebody. But it does not catch every scratch, and the forty-eight hour line is where the Code draws it.
Section 11 catches the near miss. A scaffold that collapses at night injures nobody and tells you everything about the site. So the section applies to a dangerous occurrence whether causing any bodily injury or disability, or not. Without it, an establishment could have a series of warnings and report none of them.
Section 12 catches the slow harm. An occupational disease has no moment of accident, and by the time it is diagnosed the worker is often no longer there. So the Code does something it does nowhere else: it puts the duty on the doctor as well as the employer, and penalises the doctor for not doing it.
Some words this chapter uses
Dangerous occurrence is an event of a kind the appropriate Government prescribes which signals serious risk, whether or not anyone is hurt. Qualified medical practitioner is a person registered to practise medicine. Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator is the senior officer under Chapter IX. Third Schedule to this Code lists the notifiable diseases. Agent and manager, in relation to a mine, are defined in section 2(1)(c) and section 67.
Section 10: notice of an accident
Section 10(1), the trigger and who must report. Where at any place in an establishment an accident occurs which:
- causes death; or
- causes any bodily injury by reason of which the person injured is prevented from working for a period of forty-eight hours or more immediately following the accident; or
- is of such nature as the appropriate Government prescribes,
then notice shall be sent to the prescribed authorities, in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time, by:
| Clause | The establishment is | Who reports |
|---|---|---|
| (a) | a mine | the employer, owner, agent or manager referred to in section 67 |
| (b) | a factory, or relates to dock work | the employer or manager |
| (c) | a plantation, an establishment relating to building or other construction work, or any other establishment | the employer |
Notices of Accidents, Dangerous Occurrences and Diseases
The forty-eight hour threshold is the figure to remember, and note how it is measured: the person must be prevented from working for forty-eight hours or more immediately following the accident. It is not about the seriousness of the wound but about the time lost.
Contrast section 73 of the Social Security Code, which uses seven days to report and defines serious bodily injury by reference to loss of a limb, sight or hearing, a fracture, or absence exceeding twenty days. The two Codes ask for different reports on different triggers, and both may apply to the same accident.
Section 10(2), the inquiry. Where the notice relates to an accident causing death in a plantation, an establishment relating to building or other construction work, or any other establishment, the authority to whom the notice is sent shall make an inquiry into the occurrence within two months of receiving it; and if there is no such authority, the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator shall cause an Inspector-cum-Facilitator to make an inquiry within the same period.
Two points on sub-section (2). The inquiry is mandatory, not discretionary, and it is time bound at two months. And the fallback in the second limb means the duty cannot fail for want of a designated authority.
Note which establishments sub-section (2) covers: plantations, construction and "any other establishment". Mines, factories and dock work, that is clauses (a) and (b) of sub-section (1), have their own inquiry machinery elsewhere in the Code and are not in this sub-section.
Section 11: notice of a dangerous occurrence
Where in an establishment there is any dangerous occurrence of such nature as the appropriate Government prescribes, whether causing any bodily injury or disability, or not, the employer shall send notice to the prescribed authorities, in the prescribed form and within the prescribed time.
The parenthesis is the whole section. A dangerous occurrence is reportable even though nobody was hurt, which is what makes section 11 a preventive provision rather than a record of harm already done.
Section 12: notice of disease, and the doctor's duty
Section 12(1), the employer. Where any worker in an establishment contracts any disease specified in the Third Schedule, the employer shall send notice to the prescribed authorities, in the prescribed form and within the prescribed time.
Section 12(2), the doctor. If any qualified medical practitioner attends on a person who is or has been employed in an establishment, and who is, or is believed by the practitioner to be, suffering from a Third Schedule disease, the practitioner shall without delay send a report in writing to the office of the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator, in the prescribed form, manner and time.
Notices of Accidents, Dangerous Occurrences and Diseases
Section 12(3), the penalty. A qualified medical practitioner who fails to comply with sub-section (2) shall be punishable with penalty which may extend to ten thousand rupees.
Four things make section 12(2) worth a paragraph in an answer.
It reaches a person who is not in the workplace. The doctor owes no duty to the employer and may never have seen the factory.
It reaches a former worker. The sub-section says a person who is or has been employed, which matters because occupational disease often appears after the employment ends.
It operates on suspicion. The duty arises where the practitioner believes the person to be suffering from a listed disease; a confirmed diagnosis is not required.
It is immediate. "Without delay", not within a prescribed period.
And note the asymmetry. The employer's failure under section 12(1) is punished through the general penalty in section 94; the doctor's failure has its own specific penalty of ten thousand rupees in section 12(3).
A worked example
Zenith Fabrics runs a dyeing works, which is a factory. Three things happen in one year.
1. A worker's hand is caught in a roller and he is off work for three days. The accident caused bodily injury by reason of which he was prevented from working for forty-eight hours or more immediately following it. Under section 10(1)(b), the establishment being a factory, the employer or manager must send notice to the prescribed authorities in the prescribed manner and time.
Had he returned the next morning? Then the forty-eight hour threshold is not met, and unless the accident is of a nature the appropriate Government has prescribed, section 10 does not require notice. But the accident may still have to be recorded under section 33 and may still ground a compensation claim.
2. A storage tank ruptures at night. Nobody is on the premises. Section 11 applies if it is a dangerous occurrence of a nature prescribed by the appropriate Government. The words "whether causing any bodily injury or disability, or not" mean the absence of injury is irrelevant. The employer must send notice.
3. A dyer is diagnosed with a skin condition listed in the Third Schedule. Two separate duties arise. Under section 12(1) the employer must send notice to the prescribed authorities. Under section 12(2) the qualified medical practitioner attending him must without delay send a written report to the office of the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator.
Notices of Accidents, Dangerous Occurrences and Diseases
The doctor does not report. He is punishable with a penalty which may extend to ten thousand rupees: section 12(3).
The worker had left Zenith two years earlier and the doctor only suspects the disease. Both facts are covered. Section 12(2) applies to a person who is or has been employed, and to one whom the practitioner believes to be suffering from a listed disease.
Now change the establishment. A worker dies on a building site.
Who reports? The employer, under section 10(1)(c), the establishment relating to building or other construction work.
And then? Because it is a death in an establishment relating to building or other construction work, the authority to whom the notice is sent shall make an inquiry into the occurrence within two months of receipt; and if there is no such authority, the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator shall cause an Inspector-cum-Facilitator to inquire within that period: section 10(2).
Had the death occurred in a mine? Notice is by the employer, owner, agent or manager referred to in section 67 under section 10(1)(a), and the section 10(2) inquiry duty does not extend to mines.
What this does NOT mean
Not every accident is reportable. Section 10 requires death, or forty-eight hours or more off work, or an accident of a prescribed nature.
Section 11 does not require an injury. It applies to a prescribed dangerous occurrence whether causing any bodily injury or disability, or not.
Section 12(2) does not require a diagnosis. It applies where the practitioner believes the person to be suffering from a listed disease.
Section 12(2) does not require a current employee. It covers a person who is or has been employed in an establishment.
Section 10(2)'s inquiry duty is not general. It covers deaths in plantations, building or other construction work, and any other establishment, not mines, factories or dock work.
Limits and criticism
The forty-eight hour threshold is short but the reporting time is prescribed, so how quickly a notice must actually reach the authority is not in the Code.
Section 12 depends on the Third Schedule. A disease not listed there triggers neither the employer's duty nor the doctor's, however plainly occupational it is, unless the Schedule is amended under section 131.
Ten thousand rupees is a small penalty for a duty which may be the only route by which an occupational disease is ever recorded.
Section 10(2) provides an inquiry only for deaths, so a serious non-fatal accident produces a notice and no statutory inquiry.
Quick revision
- Section 10(1): notice of an accident causing death, or preventing the injured from working for forty-eight hours or more immediately following, or of a prescribed nature. Reported by the employer, owner, agent or manager in a mine; the employer or manager in a factory or dock work; the employer in a plantation, construction or any other establishment.
- Section 10(2): on a death in a plantation, construction or any other establishment, the authority shall inquire within two months, and if there is none, the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator shall cause an Inspector-cum-Facilitator to do so.
- Section 11: notice of a prescribed dangerous occurrence, whether or not it caused any bodily injury or disability, by the employer.
- Section 12(1): the employer notifies a Third Schedule disease contracted by a worker.
- Section 12(2): a qualified medical practitioner attending a person who is or has been employed, and who is or is believed to be suffering from a Third Schedule disease, shall without delay report in writing to the office of the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator.
- Section 12(3): failure by the practitioner, penalty up to ten thousand rupees.
Notices of Accidents, Dangerous Occurrences and Diseases
Test yourself
1. Which accidents must be notified under section 10? Those causing death; those causing bodily injury by reason of which the injured person is prevented from working for forty-eight hours or more immediately following the accident; and those of such nature as the appropriate Government prescribes.
2. Who gives the notice in a mine, and who in a factory? In a mine, the employer, owner, agent or manager referred to in section 67: section 10(1)(a). In a factory, or an establishment relating to dock work, the employer or manager: section 10(1)(b).
3. A worker dies on a construction site. What must follow the notice? The authority to whom the notice is sent shall make an inquiry into the occurrence within two months of receipt; and if there is no such authority, the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator shall cause an Inspector-cum-Facilitator to make the inquiry within that period: section 10(2).
4. Must a dangerous occurrence which injured nobody be reported? Yes, if it is of a nature prescribed by the appropriate Government. Section 11 applies whether the occurrence causes any bodily injury or disability or not.
5. What is the doctor's duty under section 12, and what is the penalty for breach? A qualified medical practitioner attending a person who is or has been employed in an establishment, and who is or is believed by him to be suffering from a disease specified in the Third Schedule, must without delay send a written report to the office of the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator in the prescribed form, manner and time. Failure is punishable with a penalty which may extend to ten thousand rupees: section 12(3).
6. Does the doctor's duty apply to a person who left the employment years ago? Yes. Section 12(2) covers a person who is or has been employed in an establishment.
The rest of this subject
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