Motor Accident Compensation | Disability Certified By Medical Board Cannot Be Reduced Without Ordering Re-Assessment : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently ruled that a disability certificate issued by the Medical Board should be accepted as such, being expert evidence. The disability percentage cannot be reduced by questioning the Medical Board's findings without ordering a reassessment.

A bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Manmohan set aside the Rajasthan High Court's decision which reduced the compensation granted to the Appellant (who suffered multiple injuries in a collision and is currently in a comatose state) based on the 100% disability certificate issued by the medical board. Both the MACT and the High Court considered it to be 50%, questioning the validity of the Medical Board's assessment due to the absence of specific testimony from a neurosurgeon.

The MACT awarded Rs.16,29,465/- compensation which was enhanced to Rs.19,39,418/-, by the High Court. Unsatisfied with the compensation amount, the Appellant approached the Supreme Court.

Challenging the determination of compensation based on 50% disability, the Appellant appealed to the Supreme Court contending that both the Courts erred in reducing the compensation and re-determining the disability to 50% from 100%. He further argued that if the below courts were reluctant to accept the disability certificate issued by the medical board comprised of experts, then instead of going into the details of the determination of disability on their own, they should have ordered the re-assessment of the disability, which they have not done.

Finding force in the Appellant's argument, the judgment authored by Justice Karol set aside the impugned decision determining the compensation based on 50% disability. The Court said if the Tribunal doubted the certificate, it should have ordered a reassessment, not substituted its own judgment. Since it didn't, the Medical Board's expert opinion gained relevance not disputing the claimant's comatose state.

“The Tribunal questioned the competence of the Medical Board to assess the permanent disability of the claimant-appellant, terming the certificate of the Medical Board as not completely reliable. If the Tribunal had reason to doubt the medical certificate, the option available before it was to have the disability re-assessed but it could not have gone into the details of the determination of disability. Since that course of action has not been adopted, the opinion of the Medical Board, being an opinion of the experts is to be treated as such. That apart, the comatose state of the claimant-appellant is not in dispute.”, the court observed.

Accordingly, the appeal was allowed, and the appellant was awarded Rs.48,70,000/- compensation.

Case Title: PRAKASH CHAND SHARMA VERSUS RAMBABU SAINI & ANR.

Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 186

Click here to read/download the judgment

Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) Mr. Anuj Bhandari, AOR Mr. Anuj Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Rajat Gupta, Adv.

For Respondent(s) Ms. Prerna Mehta, AOR