Prayagraj, Oct 27 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has held that a claim for ex gratia assistance of Rs 50 lakh under the government’s COVID-19 scheme cannot be rejected merely for want of a positive RT-PCR report, when government hospital’s own records substantiate the infection as the underlying cause of death.
A bench comprising Justice Prakash Padia and Justice Garima Prashad allowing a petition filed by one Archana Singh observed, “Where the government hospital’s contemporaneous records expressly record a positive antigen result and the respondents accept the infection and cause of death, the absence of a separate copy of the test report cannot be treated as absence of proof of COVID-19.”
Petitioner’s husband was a junior engineer at the Obra thermal power project of the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited. He remained on duty through the pandemic and was admitted to the government hospital at Lodhi, Sonbhadra on April 28, 2021.
His bed-head ticket recorded a positive antigen result and he died during treatment on May 5, 2021, with the hospital’s death proforma recording COVID-19 viral pneumonia followed by cardiopulmonary arrest.
On the recommendation of the chief general manager of the company and the report of a committee headed by the chief development officer, the district magistrate approved the claim in June 2021 and the certificates were later verified as correct.
However, the application was rejected on November 16, 2021, for the non-submission of an RT-PCR report on the designated portal.
The standing counsel for the State submitted that the government order required such a report to be uploaded, which was not available, and that the claim could not be processed on the portal without it.
The court in its judgment on Monday said, “In this case, the hospital’s own death proforma expressly records COVID-19 viral pneumonia. Cardiopulmonary arrest is recorded as the event that followed it. That entry provides no basis for disregarding COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.”
The court further observed that the government order itself allowed an RT-PCR, antigen or CT scan report, so an RT-PCR report was not the only recognised means of proving infection.
The government scheme provided a one-time payment of Rs 50 lakh to the dependents of personnel who died of COVID-19 while performing duties connected with its prevention, protection or treatment.
A government order dated July 26, 2021 required a legible copy of the deceased employee’s RT-PCR, antigen or CT scan report to be uploaded on the Relief Commissioner’s portal. PTI COR RAJ KVK
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