Section 51C: Accidents happening while travelling in employer’s transport

The Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 was repealed and replaced by the Code on Social Security, 2020 from 21 November 2025. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.

(1) An accident happening while an [employee] is, with the express or implied permission of his employer, travelling as a passenger by any vehicle to or from his place of work shall, notwithstanding that he is under no obligation to his employer to travel by that vehicle, be deemed to arise out of and in the course of his employment, if—

(a) the accident would have been deemed so to have arisen had he been under such obligation; and

(b) at the time of the accident, the vehicle—

(i) is being operated by or on behalf of his employer or some other person by whom it is provided in pursuance of arrangements made with his employer, and

(ii) is not being operated in the ordinary course of public transport service.

(2) In this section “vehicle” includes a vessel and an aircraft.

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 51C

No Supreme Court judgment in our database cites this section yet.