Compensation must be set for disabilities from injuries: Karnataka HC

A division bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice P Krishna Bhat passed the order while allowing the appeal filed by a claimant seeking enhancement of the compensation.
Karnataka High Court (Photo | EPS)
Karnataka High Court (Photo | EPS)

BENGALURU: Noting that the contention of the insurance company that computing compensation under the head of ‘loss of future earning capacity’ only to disability arising from amputation defies logic and has no sanction of law, the Karnataka High Court said, adding that the Tribunals should bear in mind that compensation have to determined for disabilities due to injuries even without amputation in motor vehicle accident cases.

“In spite of vast progress in the field of science, humankind has not been able to establish a scientific method for making an exact estimation of the correlation between the physical disability suffered and impact it would have on his reduced capacity to earn in future. Inevitably, some amount of educated guess work needs to enter this domain,” the court said.

A division bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice P Krishna Bhat passed the order while allowing the appeal filed by a claimant seeking enhancement of the compensation. “The courts are enjoined under law to award ‘just compensation’ and no compensation can be regarded as just unless law is capable of reinventing itself by making proper adjustments as the ‘needs of the time’,” the court said.

“The materials produced before the Tribunal show that the claimant was running a tailoring business, which undeniably requires an able body and more particularly, a fully functional pair of lower limbs. It would be harsh, unrealistic, nay, almost nihilistic on the part of the Tribunal to ignore the philosophy of the Constitution of India in making their decision. Any disability, therefore, to any limb of the body which has a role to play in the functional-economic sense indubitably causes its effect on the body warranting curial intervention in its reparative and recompensing role,” the court said.

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