Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel can be treated as ‘workman’ and claim compensation for injury suffered on duty under the Employee’s Compensation Act, 1923 despite it being an armed force of the Union, the Supreme Court has ruled. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Manoj Misra dismissed an appeal filed by a commanding officer of the Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF), a unit of RPF, challenging the 2016 order of the Gujarat High Court which had upheld the compensation awarded by the Workmen Compensation Commissioner to the kin of a constable, who died on duty.
