Future medical expenses for limb-lengthening and implant removal are compensable without interest.

The claimant sustained injuries in a road accident on 17 November 2020 involving a tipper lorry.

She was 21 years old and had completed a fashion-designing course and undertaken tailoring work.

The Tribunal assessed her whole-body disability at 24% and awarded ₹17,37,000, including compensation for loss of future income and ₹50,000 for future medical expenses.

The claimant appealed seeking enhancement, while the insurer challenged the quantum, including the disability assessment and addition of future prospects.

Whether the Tribunal was justified in assessing the claimant’s whole-body disability at 24% and applying 40% future prospects in calculating loss of future income.

Whether the compensation for loss of amenities and future medical expenses required enhancement, and whether interest was payable on the enhanced future medical expenses.

The appeals were brought under Section 173(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

The Court applied the principles governing assessment of motor-accident compensation, including use of the appropriate multiplier based on age, assessment of functional disability on the evidence, and compensation for loss of amenities and future medical needs.

It affirmed the Tribunal’s application of multiplier 18 for a claimant aged 21 and its addition of 40% future prospects where the assessed disability exceeded 20%.

The insurer relied on T.J. Parameshwarappa v. Branch Manager, New India Assurance Company Limited, (2022) 17 SCC 51, concerning reduction of a disability assessment; the Court did not adopt that submission on the facts.

The Court upheld the 24% whole-body disability assessment because the treating doctor testified to 72% limb disability and 24% whole-body disability, and specifically stated that the claimant’s leg was shortened by four centimetres.

That evidence was not displaced in cross-examination; the Court therefore rejected the insurer’s challenge and affirmed the Tribunal’s addition of 40% future prospects.

It found the existing awards for pain and suffering, medical expenses, and income during the three-month laid-up period appropriate, but increased loss-of-amenities compensation from ₹25,000 to ₹75,000.

Given the doctor’s evidence that limb-lengthening and implant-removal procedures would cost ₹3,00,000, it increased future medical expenses from ₹50,000 to ₹3,00,000.

The enhancement thus totalled ₹3,00,000; interest was allowed only on the ₹50,000 increase for loss of amenities, not on the additional ₹2,50,000 for future medical expenses.

The claimant was awarded an additional ₹3,00,000, with interest at 6% per annum from the petition date to realization on ₹50,000 only; no interest was awarded on the enhanced future medical expenses, and no interest was payable for the 502-day delay in filing the claimant’s appeal.

The insurer was directed to deposit the enhanced compensation within six weeks, and the claimant was permitted to withdraw the entire enhancement.