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CHAPTER XVI.—WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION. 
The Existing Law. 
Proposals for a Workmen’s Compensation Act were first pub- 
lished by the Government of India in 1921 and met with general support. 
A committee which included persons representing the views of employers 
and workers met in Simla in 1922 and, with the assistance of the replies 
received to the Government of India’s circular letter on the subject, 
prepared the main framework of a measure. With minor modifications, 
their conclusions were embodied in a bill introduced in the Legislative 
Assembly inthat year. The bill, after being circulated for opinions, was 
considered and modified by a Joint Seleet Committee of both houses of 
the Indian Legislature, and was subsequently passed, with a number of 
minor amendments in the spring of 1923. It came into effect on lst 
July 1924. Excluding verbal corrections, the Act has been twice 
amended. In 1926 an unimportant modification was made in order 
to render possible the ratification of an International Labour Conven- 
tion, and in 1929 several amendments were made. These were designed 
to remedy admitted defects or to embody improvements of a non-con- 
troversial character. They did not involve any change in the main 
principles of the Act or in its more important features. 
Proposals for General Revision. 
At the time when these amendments were mooted, the Govern- 
ment of India also raised, in a circular letter, the question of a more 
general revision of the Act. They observed that the Act was admittedly 
an experimental measure, and that many of its features owed their 
origin more to a desire to minimise the difficulties attendant on the intro- 
duction of an entirely new measure than to any belief in their permanent 
value. And, in inviting suggestions for the improvement of the Act, 
they formulated a number of proposals and questions covering the more 
important peints which arose in this connection. Copies of the circular 
and of the numerous replies which the Government of India received 
to it were supplied to us and have been of great assistance. 
Character of the Act. 
While the Act follows the British model in its main principle and 
a number of its provisions are directly borrowed from British legislation, 
it possesses important distinctive features. The main difference lies 
in the extreme rigidity of the Indian law. The attempt to leave as few 
openings for disputes as possible has resulted in a code which is necessarily 
arbitrary in its operation in particular cases, but we are satisfied that, so 
far as workmen are concerned, the advantages gained greatly outweigh 
the disadvantages. The inelastic character of the Indian Act is 
specially marked in respect of the scales of compensation, and while we 
consider that these scales should now be modified, we regard it as 
important that the existing precision of the scales should be conserved. 
Another feature of great importance is the reservation of the settlement 
of disputes to specially appointed commissioners, who are entrust- 
ed with wider powers than those granted to civil courts, and