15BSpecial provisions relating to employees abroad of companies and motor vehicles

¹[15B. Special provisions relating to ²[employees] abroad of companies and motor vehicles.--This Act shall apply--

(i) in the case of ²[employees] who are persons recruited by companies registered in India and working as such abroad, and

(ii) persons sent for work abroad along with motor vehicles registered under the Motor Vehicles, Act, 1988 (59 of 1988) as drivers, helpers, mechanics, cleaners or other ³[employees], subject to the following modifications, namely:--

(1) The notice of the accident and the claim for compensation may be served on the local agent of the company, or the local agent of the owner of the motor vehicle, in the country of accident, as the case may be.

(2) In the case of death of the ⁴[employee] in respect of whom the provisions of this section shall apply, the claim for compensation shall be made within one year after the news of the death has been received by the claimant:

Provided that the Commissioner may entertain any claim for compensation in any case notwithstanding that the claim has not been preferred in due time as provided in this subsection, if he is satisfied that the failure so to prefer the claim was due to sufficient cause.

(3) Where an injured ³[employee] is discharged or left behind in any part of India or in any other country any depositions taken by any Judge or Magistrate in that part or by any Consular Officer, in the foreign country and transmitted by the person by whom they are taken to the Central Government or any State Government shall, in any proceedings for enforcing the claims, be admissible in evidence--

(a) if the deposition is authenticated by the signature of the Judge, Magistrate or Consular Officer before whom it is made;

(b) if the defendant or the person accused, as the case may be, had an opportunity by himself or his agent to cross-examine the witness;

(c) if the deposition was made in the course of a criminal proceeding, on proof that the deposition was made in the presence of 'the person accused,

and it shall not be necessary in any case to prove the signature 017 official character of the person appearing to have signed any such deposition and a certificate by such person that the defendant or the person accused had an opportunity of cross-examining the witness and that the deposition if made in a criminal proceeding vas made in the presence of the person accused shall, unless the contrary is proved, be sufficient evidence that he had that opportunity and that it was so made.]