Disability Certification by Medical Board Cannot Be Altered Without Reassessment – Supreme Court
The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in the case of Prakash Chand Sharma v. Rambabu Saini & Anr., has ruled that a disability certificate issued by a Medical Board should be accepted as expert evidence and cannot be arbitrarily questioned or altered without ordering a reassessment.
A bench comprising Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Manmohan set aside the decision of the Rajasthan High Court, which had reduced the compensation granted to the appellant. The appellant had suffered multiple injuries in a road accident and was in a comatose state. The Medical Board had certified his disability as 100%, but both the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (MACT) and the High Court had reassessed it at 50%, citing the absence of specific testimony from a neurosurgeon.
Initially, the MACT had awarded a compensation of Rs. 16,29,465, which was later enhanced to Rs. 19,39,418 by the High Court. However, the appellant, dissatisfied with the reduced compensation, approached the Supreme Court, challenging the determination of disability at 50%. The appellant contended that both the lower courts had erred in reducing the disability percentage without ordering a reassessment by medical experts. He argued that if the courts were not inclined to accept the Medical Board’s assessment, they should have directed a fresh medical evaluation instead of making an independent determination.
The Supreme Court found merit in the appellant’s argument. In the judgment the Court emphasized that if the tribunal had doubts regarding the Medical Board’s assessment, the appropriate course of action would have been to order a reassessment rather than substituting its own judgment. The Court observed that the Medical Board’s expert opinion remained significant, especially since the claimant’s comatose condition was undisputed.
“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 Supreme Court allowed the appeal and awarded the appellant a revised compensation of Rs. 48,70,000, upholding the Medical Board’s original disability assessment. This ruling reinforces the principle that expert medical evidence should be given due weight and cannot be disregarded without a proper basis.