HC orders ₹1cr for principal of school who died on Covid duty

The division bench disagreed, citing an official letter confirming his role in Covid-19 vaccination work.

The Delhi High Court has directed the city government to pay ₹1 crore as ex gratia compensation within eight weeks to the widow of a school principal who died while overseeing Covid-19 vaccination work.

The court added that the Delhi government’s May 13, 2020 policy was a welfare measure meant to benefit families of those who died while rendering essential services. (REUTERS)

A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Tushar Rao Gedela, in the verdict delivered on Thursday, stressed that the government’s compensation policy was a welfare-oriented measure for families of those who lost their lives while performing essential pandemic services.

The ruling came on the woman’s appeal against a November 2024 single-judge order that denied her compensation, holding that her husband was not on Covid duty when he contracted the virus.

Her husband, principal of MCD Primary Boys’ School, Nithari, died in April 2021 after contracting Covid.

She sought compensation under the Delhi government’s May 2020 policy, arguing that the school had been designated a Covid-19 vaccination centre and that he was responsible for assigning staff pandemic-related duties. Authorities rejected her claim in December 2021, stating that he died while performing “regular duties.”

The division bench disagreed, citing an official letter confirming his role in Covid-19 vaccination work. As head of the institution, the bench in the verdict authored by Justice Gedela, said he was necessarily responsible for supervising staff deployed for Covid-related tasks.

“It is well documented that too, that medical experts all over the world believe that the coronavirus was mutating and ever evolving into myriad versions of itself, posing the greatest challenges to the best and most fertile medical minds. Thus, a restricted and highly constricted view cannot be taken,” the bench said in its 17-page verdict released later.

It added that the Delhi government’s May 13, 2020 policy was a welfare measure meant to benefit families of those who died while rendering essential services. “While examining applications under such beneficial policies, a narrow and pedantic view ought to be completely avoided,” the court said.