Medical expert’s certified disability percentage must be accepted without reduction for whole body assessment.

The appellant, a laborer earning Rs. 3600/- per month, suffered multiple fractures and internal injuries due to a landslide while performing duties on 12/12/2005.

He filed Workman Compensation (N.F) Case No. 35 of 2007. The Workman Compensation Commissioner awarded compensation of Rs. 94,380/-, assessing disability at 20% despite a medical certificate at Exh. 20 and deposition at Exh. 23 asserting 34% permanent partial disability.

The appellant challenged this reduction in the High Court.

1. Whether the Workman Compensation Commissioner erred in reducing the certified disability from 34% to 20% by applying a "whole body" assessment.

2. Whether the appellant is entitled to enhanced compensation based on the certified 34% permanent partial disability.

The court applied the provisions of the Workman’s Compensation Act (now Employee's Compensation Act, 1923), specifically regarding the assessment of permanent partial disability.

The court emphasized that a disability certificate issued by a qualified medical expert constitutes expert evidence under the Act.

The core principle established is that a Commissioner cannot arbitrarily depart from or reduce the percentage of disability certified by a medical expert—who has been examined in court—by applying a "whole body assessment" logic, as such a reduction is not permissible under the statutory framework of the Act.

The Court observed that Dr. B.P. Khadia (Exh. 20) certified a 34% permanent partial disability and supported this finding through oral testimony (Exh. 23).

The High Court reasoned that the Commissioner committed a legal error by manually scaling down the disability to 20% for "functional loss" computation.

Since the medical expert's evidence remained consistent and unchallenged, the Court held it must be accepted at face value.

Consequently, the Court recalculated the compensation using the 34% figure within the original arithmetic formula used by the Commissioner to determine the revised principal amount, penalty, and interest.

It held that the disability is 34%, increasing the total compensation to Rs. 1,60,444/-.

The Court ordered: (i) Respondent No. 1 (Insurance Co.) to pay the enhanced net compensation of Rs. 66,064/-; (ii) Respondent No. 2 (Owner) to pay a revised penalty of Rs. 80,222/- (50% of the total amount) and 12% interest per annum from the date of the incident until realization.

All deposits must be made within six weeks.