Courts can't substitute medical opinion: SC

New Delhi, Aug 23 (PTI) The Supreme Court has held that courts cannot substitute the opinion of the medical board and decide that a person had developed "schizophrenia" on account of his service condition.

The apex court made the observation while upholding an appeal filed by the Union government challenging a decision of the Kerala High Court to grant pensionary benefits to family of A V Damodaran who died of schizophrenia in 1984 while working in the Indian Army as a "Sapper".

"The Medical Board had opined that the disability of A V Damodaran was not attributable to the military service nor has it been aggravated thereby and it is not connected with the service, as schizophrenia is a constitutional disease," a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma observed.