Ordinance VII of 1941 · 6 pages
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THE WAR INJURIES ORDINANCE, 1941
CONTENTS
1. Short title, extent and commencement
2. Interpretation
3. Power to make schemes for relief in respect of war injuries and war service injuries
4. Relief from liability to pay compensation or damages
5. Information as to earnings
5A. Medical attention in dispensaries and hospitals
6. Penalty for false statement
7. Assignment or charges to be void
Page 1 of 6
THE WAR INJURIES ORDINANCE, 1941
1
ORDINANCE No. VII OF 1941
[25th July, 1941]
An Ordinance to make provision for the grant of relief in respect of certain personal injuries
sustained during the continuance of 2[* *] hostilities.
WHEREAS an emergency has arisen which renders it necessary to make provision for the
grant of relief in respect of certain personal injuries sustained during the continuance of 2[* *]
hostilities;
Now, THEREFORE, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 72 of the Government of
India Act, as set out in the Ninth Schedule to the Government of India Act, 1935, the
Governor-General is pleased to make and promulgate the following Ordinance:⸻
1. Short title, extent and commencement.⸻(1) This Ordinance may be called the War
Injuries Ordinance, 1941.
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[(2) It extends to the whole of Pakistan].
(3) It shall come into force at once.
2. Interpretation.—In this Ordinance, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or
context,⸻
(1) “civil defence organization” means any organisation established for civil
defence purposes which is declared by a scheme to be a civil defence
organisation for the purposes of this Ordinance and the scheme;
(2) “civil defence volunteer”, in relation to an injury, means a person certified, by
an officer of a civil defence organisation authorised by the 4[Federal
Government] to grant such certificates, to have been a member of that
organisation at the time the injury was sustained;
5
[(3) “continuance of hostilities” means,⸻
(a) in relation to the hostilities during 1939-1945, the period beginning
with the commencement of this Ordinance and ending on the date
declared by the late Government of India to be the date on which the
said hostilities terminated; and
1
The Ordinance has been applied to Balochistan, see Notification No.23-W, dated the 1st October, 1941.
It has been extended to the Leased Areas of Balochistan by the Leased Areas (Laws) Order, 1950 (G.G.O.3 of 1950).
This Ordinance has been applied to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas of Balochistan, see Regualtion No.IV of 1987, Art.2 and
Sch.
2
Omitted by Ordinance No. XXXIII of 1965, s. 2.
3
Subs. by the Central Laws (Statute Reform) Ordinance No. XXI of 1960, s. 3 and 2nd Sch.
4
Subs. by F.A.O., 1975, Art.2 and Table.
5
Subs. by Ordinance No. XXXIII of 1965,s.3.
The present hostilities as respects the tribal areas beyond the western and northern boundaries of the North-West Frontier Province and
such of the Baluch tribal areas beyond the western border of the Dera Ghazi Khan District of the Punjab as are not included in the
Baluchistan Tribal Areas, shall be deemed to have terminated on the 31st August, 1945, see Notification No. 1-W., dated the 8th January,
1946, Gazette of India, 1945, Pt. I, p. 30.
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(b) in relation to any other hostilities, the period beginning with the date
declared by the 1[Federal Government], by notification in the official
Gazette, to be the date of the commencement of hostilities for the
purpose of this Ordinance and ending on the date declared likewise to
be the date of termination of such hostilities ;]
(4) “gainfully occupied person” means a person who is engaged in any trade,
business, profession, office, employment or vocation and is wholly or
substantially dependent thereon for a livelihood, or a person who, though
temporarily unemployed is normally so engaged and dependent;
(5) “scheme” means a scheme made under this Ordinance;
(6) “war injury” means a physical injury⸻
(a) caused by⸻
(i) the discharge of any missile (including liquids and gas), or
(ii) the use of any weapon, explosive or other noxious thing, or
(iii) the doing of any other injurious act, either by the enemy or in
combating the enemy or in repelling an imagined attack by the
enemy; or
(b) caused by the impact on any person or property of any enemy aircraft,
or any aircraft belonging to or held by any person on behalf of or for
the benefit of 2[Government] or any allied power, or any part of, or
anything dropped from, any such aircraft; 3[or]
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[(c) caused by any explosion or fire which involves any explosives or
munitions or other dangerous things required for war purposes and
which happens or is caused by, through, or in connection with the
manufacture, storage or transportation of any such explosives,
munitions or other dangerous things;]
(7) “war service injury”, in relation to a civil defence volunteer, means any
physical injury shown to the satisfaction of the 1[Federal Government] or other
authority authorised to make payments under a scheme to have arisen out of
and in the course of the performance by the volunteer of his duties as a
member of the civil defence organisation to which he belonged at the time the
injury was sustained, and (except in the case of a war injury) not to have arisen
out of and in the course of his employment in any other capacity:
Provided that before being so satisfied the 1[Federal Government] or other authority
authorised to make payments under a scheme shall have received from the civil defence organisation
of which the volunteer concerned was a member at the time the injury was sustained, a report, by an
officer of the organisation authorised by the 1[Federal Government] to make such reports, about the
injury in question.
1
Subs. by F.A.O., 1975, Art.2 and Table.
2
Subs. by A. O., 1961, Art. 2.
3
Added by Ordinance No. X of 1945, s. 2.
Page 3 of 6
3. Power to make schemes for relief in respect of war injuries and war service injuries.
⸻(1) The 1[Federal Government] may make a scheme or schemes in accordance with the provisions
of this Ordinance providing for the grant of relief in respect of the following injuries sustained during
the continuance of 2[* *] hostilities, namely:⸻
(a) war injuries sustained by gainfully occupied persons (with such exceptions, if
any, as may be specified in the scheme) and by persons of such other classes
as may be so specified ; and
(b) war service injuries sustained by civil defence volunteers.
(2) A scheme may authorise the 1[Federal Government], or any authority authorised by the
1
[Federal Government] to make payments under the scheme in such circumstances and subject to
such conditions as may be specified in the scheme, to make to or in respect of persons injured ⸻
(a) payments by way of temporary allowance, which shall be payable only so long
as the person injured is incapacitated for work by the injury and has not
received any such payment as is mentioned in clause (b);
(b) payments otherwise than by way of temporary allowance, which shall be
payable only where the injury causes serious and prolonged disablement or
death ; and
(c) payments for the purchase of or the grant at the cost of Government of
artificial limbs or surgical or other appliances 3[and payments for medical and
surgical treatment].
(3) A scheme may empower the 1[Federal Government] to make regulations for giving effect
to the purposes of the scheme.
(4) A scheme may provide that it shall come into operation or shall be deemed to have come
into operation on such date as may by specified therein.
(5) A scheme may be amended or rescinded at any time by the 1[Federal Government.]
(6) Any decision of the 1[Federal Government] or other authority empowered to make
payments under a scheme as to the making, refusal or amount, or as to the continuance or
discontinuance, of a payment under a scheme may be varied from time to time by a subsequent
decision of the 1[Federal Government] or such authority as the case may be, but save in so far as it is
so varied shall be final and conclusive.
4. Relief from liability to pay compensation or damages.⸻(1) In respect of a war injury
sustained during the continuance of 4[* *] hostilities by any person, and in respect of a war service
injury sustained during that period by a civil defence volunteer, no such compensation or damages
shall be payable, whether to the person injured or to any other person, as apart from the provisions of
this sub-section⸻
1
Subs. by F.A.O.,1975, Art.2 and Table,.
2
Omitted by Ordinance No. XXXIII of 1965, s. 4.
3
Added by Ordinance No. I of 1942, s. 2.
4
Omitted by Ordinance No. XXXIII of 1965, s. 5.
Page 4 of 6
(a) would be payable under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923 (VIII of
1923); or
(b) would, whether by virtue of any enactment or by virtue of any contract or at
common law, be payable ⸻
(i) in the case of a war injury, by any person, or
(ii) in the case of a war service injury sustained by a civil defence
volunteer, by the employer of the volunteer, or by any person who has
responsibility in connection with the volunteer’s duties as such or by
any other civil defence volunteer, on the ground that the injury in
question was attributable to some negligence, nuisance or breach of
duty for which the person by whom the compensation or damages
would be payable is responsible.
(2) The failure to give a notice or make a claim or commence proceedings within the time
required by any enactment shall not be a bar to the maintenance of proceedings in respect of any
personal injury, if ⸻
(a) an application for a payment under a scheme has been duly made to the
1
[Federal Government] or other authority empowered to make payments under
the scheme in respect of the injury; and
(b) the Court or other authority before which the proceedings are brought is
satisfied that the said application was made in the reasonable belief that the
injury was such that a payment could be made under the scheme; and
(c) the 1[Federal Government] or other authority empowered to make payments
under the scheme certifies that the application was rejected, or that payments
made in pursuance of the application, were discontinued, on the ground that
the injury was not such an injury ; and
(d) the proceedings are commenced within one month from the date of the said
certificate.
5. Information as to earnings. ⸻(1) Where it is necessary in order to determine the amount
of any payment to be awarded under a scheme in respect of any injury, to ascertain the earnings of
the person injured in respect of any period before he sustained the injury, the 1[Federal Government
or other authority authorised to make payments under the scheme may by notice in writing require ⸻
(a) any person who was an employer of the injured person during that period, or
(b) any other person having any knowledge with respect to the financial
circumstances of the injured person during that period, to furnish in
accordance with the notice any information in his possession relating to those
earnings or circumstances, and to produce to any person specified in the notice
any wage books, records or other documents in his possession containing
entries with respect to those earnings.
1
Subs. by F.A.O., 1975, Art.2 and Table.
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(2) If any person ⸻
(a) fails to comply with the requirements of any such notice, or
(b) in purported compliance with any such notice, knowingly or recklessly makes
any untrue statement or untrue representation, or produces any document
which is false in a material particular or calculated to deceive, he shall be
punishable with fine which may extend to three hundred rupees.
1[5A. Medical attention in dispensaries and hospitals.⸻(1) The person managing any
dispensary or hospital shall, if so required by the 2[Federal] or a Provincial Government by general
or special order, ⸻
(a) provide at the dispensary or hospital medical and surgical treatment for
persons who have sustained injuries of the nature specified in sub-section (1)
of section 3, and
(b) keep such records and make such returns relating to the persons treated for
such injuries as may be required by or under a scheme.
(2) If any person fails to comply when so required with the provisions of this section he shall
be punishable with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.]
6. Penalty for false statement.—Any person, who for the purpose of obtaining a payment or
grant under a scheme either for himself or for any other person, knowingly makes any untrue
statement or untrue representation, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may ex-
tend to three months.
7. Assignment or charges to be void.—Any assignment of, or charge on, and any agreement
to assign or charge any payment awarded or to be awarded under a scheme shall be void, and, on the
insolvency of any person to whom such a payment has been awarded, the payment shall not pass to
any trustee or other person acting on behalf of the creditors.
____________
Date: 22-05-2024
___________________________________________________________________________
1
S.5A ins. by Ordinance No. I of 1942, s.3.
2
Subs. by F.A.O., 1975, Art.2 and Table.
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Source: Pakistan Code, Ministry of Law and Justice (pakistancode.gov.pk). Text on this page is reproduced verbatim from the official PDF and is provided for reference only. For the authoritative version, always consult the source document or a current reported edition.
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