Employment injury coverage extends to an assault near the workplace when the employee is leaving duties and the risk is work-related.

An assault suffered by an employee just outside the mill gate while leaving work was treated as an employment injury under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, because it arose out of and in the course of insurable employment. The injury was linked to an earlier work-related incident, satisfying the "arising out of" requirement. For the "in the course of" test, the employee was still engaged in conduct reasonably incidental to duties when handing over charge and leaving the workplace before normal duty hours ended, and the risk remained attributable to employment rather than mere presence as a member of the public. The injury was therefore held compensable as employment injury.

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Issues: Whether an assault suffered by an employee just outside the mill gate, while leaving work before the expiry of duty hours, constituted an employment injury arising out of and in the course of employment under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948.

Analysis: The statutory definition of employment injury requires a personal injury caused by accident arising out of and in the course of insurable employment. The finding that the assault was connected with an earlier work-related incident established that the injury arose out of employment. On the further question whether it occurred in the course of employment, the relevant test was whether the employee was doing something he was obliged, expressly or impliedly, to do, or something reasonably incidental to it. An employee leaving the workplace after handing over charge, but before the expiry of his normal duty hours and at a place closely connected with his work, was still exposed to a risk attributable to the employment and not merely to the risk faced by any member of the public on a public road.

Conclusion: The assault was held to be an employment injury, because the injury arose out of and in the course of employment.

Ratio Decidendi: An injury caused by an assault occurring in close temporal and spatial proximity to employment, and while the employee is doing something reasonably incidental to his duties, arises in the course of employment if the risk is attributable to the employment and not merely to the employee's presence as a member of the public.

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