New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has reproached the Centre for taking a “narrow approach” in extending the benefit of its Covid insurance scheme to contractual employees.

Justice Subramanium Prasad also directed the Centre to disburse Rs 50 lakh to the widow of a security guard, who was posted at the Safdarjung Hospital and lost life to Covid in June 2020.

The widow had approached the court seeking benefits under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) and also for availing benefits announced by the Delhi government for families of employees who died fighting Covid.

The Centre and the State had opposed her plea saying that the security guard was not in direct contact with Covid patients and was not an employee of the state government.

Deciding in favour of the petitioner, the high court said that the insurance scheme must be interpreted liberally as it was enacted to honour the efforts of martyrs during the pandemic. It also ordered the Delhi government to consider the case of the petitioner liberally.

Earlier, the petitioner had sent a legal notice to the Additional Medical Superintendent, who denied the relief on the basis that her husband was not ‘directly’ involved in the care of Covid patients.  

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Contention of Centre & Delhi govt 

The Centre contended that the security services of the hospital were assigned to a contractor and that it was not involved in the recruitment or deployment of the petitioner’s husband. He was also not deployed for care of Covid patients, it said.

It also contended that the hospital had a separate wing for Covid patients, and since the guard was stationed at the OPD counter, he was not in direct contact with them.

The HC highlighted the efforts of the security guards who ensured that patients reached the correct areas and streamlined operations when there was immense panic and confusion. A narrow approach to the insurance scheme cannot be taken to the scheme which was brought in for the benefit of ‘martyrs’ during the pandemic, it said.

“Taking such a narrow view actually goes against the spirit of the scheme which was meant to provide immediate relief to persons who were tackling the situation and were protecting the lives of thousands of patients,” the judge observed.

The HC added that as a social welfare scheme, it must receive a broad and liberal interpretation and that the Centre cannot take the stance that there was no “direct contact” with the petitioner. 

The Delhi government contended that its ex gratia scheme only applied to families of those employees it deployed and died on Covid duty.

Since the petitioner’s husband was a contractual employee in a central government hospital, he was not performing any duty under the state government, it contended.

In this context, the HC noted that the Delhi government had restricted its scheme for ex-gratia compensation to only those who were its employees. However, it was open for administrative departments to send names for grant of such compensation, it added.

Keeping in view these directions, the judge said that the department must forward petitions for a decision by the Delhi government for award of such compensation while not granting any specific compensation. “…GNCTD is directed to examine the case of the late husband of the petitioner herein sympathetically keeping in mind the fact that the Petitioner’s husband has lost his life in the line of duty,” he added. 

Akshat Jain is a student of the National Law University, Delhi, and an intern with ThePrint.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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