NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has suggested that the legislature reconsider the outdated provisions of the Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923, emphasizing the need to modernize century-old labour laws.
A Bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Manmohan observed that certain clauses defining “dependents” in the 1923 Act have lost their relevance in the present socio-legal context.
It pointed out the impracticality of the current wording in Section 2(1)(d)(iii)(d) of the Act, which defines a dependent as “a minor brother, or an unmarried sister or a widowed sister if a minor.”