Aastha Thakur
Published on August 02, 2022 at 17:29 IST
Allahabad High Court give judgement to relief families of Covid victims died during treatment, by directing the state government to ensure relief for people who had been denied compensation due to “technical reasons”.
The Court has said that if Covid infected person admitted to hospital dies during treatment, it should be considered death by Covid, even if the immediate cause is heart failure or organ dysfunction of any other organ.
Further, the Court added that the dependants of such Covid deceased can claim compensation or ex-gratia money as already fixed by the government.
The writ plea was filed by one, Kusum Lata Yadav and others seeking directions for state authorities to allow ex-gratia payment to the dependants of Covid victims within one month of such claim.
The petitioners is dependant of Covid deceased government officer employed for panchayat elections duty and later on he died due to COVID-19.
The matter was heard by Division Bench comprising of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Vikram D Chauhan and they decided to allow the petition file before them and directing the state government accordingly. The writ was filed against the government order (GO) dated June 1, 2022, as issued order allows payment of compensation only in case of death within 30 days of election duty.
The petitioners would be entitled for ex-gratia payment to the tune of Rs 30 lakh as per GO issued by the state government to compensate the dependents of any such deceased person.
However, the other similarly situated persons will be compensated as per government notification issued in this connection.
The Petitioner argued that the object of this GO is to compensate the family, which has lost its bread earner during panchayat elections due to Covid-19.
It was contented that the state authorities admit that the death of the petitioner’s husband was caused due to Covid-19, but the payment is being denied only because of the ceiling contained in clause 12, which restricts payment of compensation only if the death has occurred within 30 days.