Section 51B: Accidents happening while acting in breach of regulations, etc

The Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 was repealed and replaced by the Code on Social Security, 2020 from 21 November 2025.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.

An accident shall be deemed to arise out of and in the course of [an employee’s] employment notwithstanding that he is at the time of the accident acting in contravention of the provisions of any law applicable to him, or of any orders given by or on behalf of his employer or that he is acting without instructions from his employer, if—

(a) the accident would have been deemed so to have arisen had the act not been done in contravention as aforesaid or without instructions from his employer, as the case may be; and

(b) the act is done for the purpose of and in connection with the employer’s trade or business.

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 51B

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