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Supreme Court: The families of doctors who lost their lives during Covid-19 will get Rs 50 lakh. This important decision has been given by the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court: The families of doctors who lost their lives during Covid-19 will get Rs 50 lakh. This important decision has been given by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that families of doctors who lost their lives in the line of duty during the Covid-19 pandemic are entitled to insurance coverage of Rs 50 lakh under the “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana”. A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and R Mahadevan set aside the Bombay High Court’s judgment that private doctors were not entitled to coverage under the government insurance scheme. The bench said that there is a need for the services of doctors and this is clear from a combined reading of the Maharashtra COVID-19 Prevention and Control Regulations 2020, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s order dated March 31, 2020, PMGKY-package scheme, clarification letter to the PMGKY policy and the provisions issued by it. The bench said that the laws and regulations were invoked to ensure the need for the services of doctors.
Private doctors also entitled to insurance
The bench said that the objective of the insurance scheme was to provide assurance to the doctors and health professionals working on the front line that the country is with them. The court said that individual claims for insurance made under the PMGKY-package will be considered and decided in accordance with law and on the basis of evidence. It further states that the onus is on the claimant to prove that the deceased died while performing COVID-19 related duties and this must be established on the basis of credible evidence. The top court was hearing a plea filed by Pradeep Arora and others against the Bombay High Court’s March 9, 2021 order, which had held that private hospital employees are not eligible to receive benefits under the insurance scheme unless their services are demanded by the state or central government.
PM Garib Kalyan Bima Yojana becomes security cover
The petition was filed in the High Court by Kiran Bhaskar Surgade, whose husband died of Covid-19 in 2020. Her husband ran a private clinic in Thane, Maharashtra. The insurance company rejected her claim under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) on the grounds that her husband’s clinic was not recognized as a COVID-19 hospital. PMGKP was announced in March 2020 and its coverage has been expanded since then. It was started to provide security to health workers so that they can get help in any adverse situation. The insurance money is used to take care of the families of health workers who lose their lives due to Covid-19. Under PMGKP, an insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh is provided to healthcare workers, which became a security cover for the dependents of Covid warriors who lost their lives due to the infection.
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