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CHAPTER XVI, 
that preliminary proceedings of the kind suggested (which have an ana- 
logy in other classes of cases) should impair the confidence of any party 
in the impartiality of the Commissioner in any subsequent contested 
proceedings between the employer and the dependants ; but if the sugges- 
tion we have made earlier of appointing additional Commissioners js adopt- 
ed, another tribunal would be available to which subsequent proceedings 
could be transferred if necessary. It should be added, however, that if the 
Act is extended to any large extent to unorganised branches of industry, 
there may be difficulty in enforcing these provisions in such branches. In 
the case of fatal accidents to seamen on the high seas, shipping masters 
should transmit to the Commissioner concerned copies of the report 
made to them under the Merchant Shipping Act. 
Tt is also possible, and in our opinion desirable, to introduce simpli- 
fications in procedure which will benefit dependants and others claiming 
compensation without prejudicing employers. As the Act stands at 
present, a dependant claiming compensation must approach the employer 
first and endeavour to secure agreement with him. But, as the 
Government of India have pointed out, the employer is obliged to pay 
the compensation to the Commissioner, and the dependant cannot 
make any binding agreement with the employer. Weagree; therefore, 
that it should not be necessary for the dependant to approach the 
employer, 4.e., that in fatal accidents the claim may be preferred at 
once to the Commissioner 
Notice of Accidents. 
Further, the provisions regarding notice are unduly stringent in 
their terms. We think it a wise provision that notices must be written 
but in other directions some relaxation is desirable. It is true that 
the Commissioner has wide powers to dispense with the necessity of 
a notice ; but there are a number of cases in which no notice is really 
necessary and some of these might be specified in the Act. Thus notices 
should be declared to be unnecessary in fatal accidents, if the accident 
occurs on the employer's premises and the workman dies on any pre- 
mises of the employer or at the place where he was resident at the time 
of the accident (without having left the vicinity). Further, it should be 
definitely specified that, in all cases, want of notice or a defect in a 
notice should not bar proceedings if the employer is proved to have 
had knowledge of the accident from any other source at or about the 
time it occurred. These exceptions should not be regarded as substi- 
tutes for the general power of making exceptions vested in the 
Commissioner, which should remain as at present. We understand 
that, when the rules of procedure were originally drawn up, the Gov- 
ernment of India contemplated the possibility of requiring certain 
employers to maintain books for notices of accidents similar to those 
prescribed for certain establishments in Great Britain; but they 
came to the conclusion that the Act did not empower them to act 
in this manner. We recommend that local Governments be authoris- 
d by law to require the maintenance of such books by anv classes