MEDICAL EXAMINATION :

According to Section 11 of the Act:

(i) Where an employee has given notice of an accident, he shall, if the employer, before the expiry of 3 days from the time at which service of the notice has been effected, offers to have him examined free of charge by a qualified medical practitioner, submit himself for such examination, and any employee who is in receipt of half-monthly payment under this Act shall, if so required, submit himself for such examination from time to time as per the rules under the Act.

(ii) If an employee refuses to submit himself for examination by a qualified medical practitioner or in any way obstructs the same, his right to compensation shall be suspended during the continuance of such refusal, or obstruction unless, in the case of refusal, he was prevented by any sufficient cause from so submitting himself.

(iii) If an employee, voluntarily leaves without having been so examined the vicinity of the place in which he was employed, his right to compensation shall be suspended until he returns and officers himself for such examination.

(iv) Where an employee, whose right to compensation has been suspended under sub-section (ii) or subsection (iii), dies without having submitted himself for medical examination as required by either of those subsections, the Commissioner may, if he thinks fit, direct the payment of compensation to the dependants of the deceased employee.

(v) Where under sub-section (ii) or sub-section (iii) a right to compensation is suspended, no compensation shall be payable in respect of the period of suspension, and, if the period of suspension commences before the expiry of the waiting period referred to in clause (d) of sub-section (i) of Section 4, the waiting period shall be increased by the period during which the suspension continues.

(vi) Where an injured employee has refused to be attended by a qualified medical practitioner whose services have been offered to him by the employer free of charge or having accepted such offer has deliberately disregarded the instructions of such medical practitioner, then, if it is proved that the employee has not thereafter been regularly attended by a qualified medical practitioner or having been so attended had deliberately failed to follow his instructions and that such refusal, disregard or failure was unreasonable in the circumstances of the case and that the injury has been aggravated thereby, the injury and resulting disablement shall be deemed to be of the same nature and duration as they might reasonably have been expected to be if the employee had been regularly attended by a qualified medical practitioner, whose instructions he had followed, and compensation, if any, shall be payable accordingly.

The Allahabad High Court in Burhwal Sugar Mills Ltd. v. Ramjan, observed that Section 11 confers a right and not an obligation on employer to have workmen medically examined. If he does not do so it will not debar employer from challenging medical certificate produced by employee. The court held that where the award of compensation was passed on basis of medical certificate without examination of doctor on oath, the award was liable to be quashed since there was no evidence on oath on which compensation could be awarded.