Prakash Krishna - (1.) -This is an appeal under Section 82 of the Employees State Insurance Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) against the order passed by the Judge, E.I. Court, Kanpur in Appeal No. 229 of 1991 dated 29.5.1992.
(2.) THE respondent received employment injury in his right ear on 16.4.1991. He claimed that injury has caused deafness in his right ear which has resulted into 50 per cent permanent loss of earning capacity. The E.I. Court awarded 30 per cent loss of earning capacity permanently, by the order under appeal. Aggrieved against the aforesaid order the present appeal has been filed. Heard the counsel for the parties and perused the record. The learned counsel for the appellant submitted that it was not open to the E.I. Court to take a different view than the view taken by the Medical Board with regard to the loss of earning capacity permanently. The employee suffered non schedule injury and as such the order of the Medical Board should not have been disturbed by the E.I Court. In contra, the learned counsel for the respondent submitted that the order of the E.I. Court is perfectly justified and the appeal is liable to be dismissed as no substantial question of law is involved.
(3.) AN appeal under Section 82 of the Act lies only on substantial question of law. The Act was enacted by the Parliament to provide for certain benefits to the employees in cases of sickness, maternity and employment injury and to make provision for certain other matters in relation thereto. Section 2, which contains definitions, provides in sub-section (14) that an "insured person" shall be a person who is or was an employee in respect of whom contributions are or were payable under the Act and who is, by reason thereof, entitled to any of the benefits provided in the Act. There is no dispute in the present case about the respondent being an 'insured person' and thereby entitled to the benefits under the Act. Sub-section (15A) of Section 2 defines "permanent partial disablement" as meaning such disablement of a permanent nature, as reduces the earning capacity of an employee in every employment which he was capable of undertaking at the time of the accident resulting in the disablement. It lays down further that every injury specified in part II of the Second Schedule shall be deemed to result in permanent partial disablement. Sub-section (15B) says that "permanent total disablement" would mean such disablement of a permanent nature as incapacitates an employee for all work which he was capable of performing at the time of the accident resulting in such disablement and further that permanent total disablement shall be deemed to result from every injury specified in part I of the Second Schedule or from any combination of injuries specified in part II thereof where the aggregate percentage of the loss of earning capacity, as specified in the said part II against those injuries, amounts to one hundred per cent or more. "Regulation" is defined in sub-section (18) to mean a regulation made by the Corporation while under sub-section (19) "schedule" means a schedule to the Act.;