Raj Kumar vs Ajay Kumar & Anr on 18 October, 2010
(ii) Raj Kumar v. Ajay Kumar reported in 2010 (2) TN MAC 581 (SC)
DISABILITY PERMANENT DISABILITY LOSS OF EARNING CAPACITY Ascertainment Principles to be followed Tribunal to first decide whether disability is Permanent Disability? - If it is not Permanent Disability, no question of proceeding further to determine Loss of Earning Capacity But, if on basis of medical evidence, disability is found to be Permanent Disability, Tribunal has to determine whether such Permanent Disability affected earning capacity Ascertainment of effect of Permanent Disability on actual earning capacity involves three steps: - Firstly, Tribunal to ascertain what activities Claimant could carry on, in spite of Permanent Disability and what he could not to do as a result of Permanent Disability Secondly, to ascertain avocation, profession and nature of work before accident and injured / Claimant's age Thirdly, to find out whether (i) Claimant totally disabled from earning any kind of livelihood or (ii) whether in spite of Permanent Disability Claimant could still effectively carry on activities and functions which he was earlier carrying on, or (iii) Whether he was prevented / restricted from discharging his previous activities and functions, but could carry on some other or lesser scale of activities or functions so as to continue to earn his livelihood Percentage of Permanent Disability with reference to whole body of a person cannot be assumed to be percentage of Loss of Earning Capacity Loss of Earning Capacity is something that will have to be assessed by Tribunal with reference to evidence in entirely Same Permanent Disability may result in different percentage of Loss of Earning Capacity in different persons depending upon nature of profession, occupation or job, age, education and other factors Illustrated.