Bombay HC asks Centre to consider the ₹50-L claim of Covid warrior’s family

A division bench observed that there was overwhelming evidence to show that the nurse, Manda Gaikwad, was Covid-positive at the time of her death

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has directed the central authorities to consider the compensation claim of a staff nurse’s family for ₹50 lakh under the Covid warriors’ scheme, after noting that the district collector had rejected the claim solely because an RT-PCR report confirming the deceased had Covid-19 was not produced.

HC asks Centre to consider the ₹50-L claim of Covid warrior’s family. (Shutterstock)

A division bench of justice Arun Pednekar and justice Vaishali Patil-Jadhav observed that there was overwhelming evidence to show that the nurse, Manda Gaikwad, was Covid-positive at the time of her death. The court held that the Ahilyanagar district collector could not have rejected her husband’s claim merely on the ground that an RT-PCR test report was not submitted.

According to the petition filed by the nurse’s husband, Machindra Gaikwad, Manda had been working as a nurse at the Civil Hospital in Ahilyanagar since 1993 and had also served during the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2021, she was posted at the Covid Care Centre set up at Mahatma Phule Agricultural University in Rahuri, where she was infected with the virus. She tested positive for Covid-19 on April 30, 2021, and died on May 5, 2021 due to the infection.

Soon after her death, Machindra Gaikwad filed a claim with the district collector seeking ₹50 lakh compensation under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for Covid warriors. When the claim remained undecided despite repeated representations, he approached the Aurangabad bench of the high court in 2021. The court then directed the collector to decide the claim within four months.

Accordingly, on September 15, 2022, the district collector rejected the claim on the ground that Machindra had not submitted an RT-PCR test report showing that his wife was Covid-positive at the time of her death. This prompted him to approach the high court again.

The high court last week allowed the plea, noting that there was overwhelming evidence to establish that the deceased was Covid-positive. The judges observed that she was a health worker posted at a Covid centre during the pandemic, that her health reports clearly indicated a Covid-19 infection, and that her death certificate mentioned the cause of death as cardiorespiratory failure due to ARDS with bilateral pneumonitis as a consequence of Covid-19.

“In this situation, merely because the petitioner could not submit the laboratory report certifying that the deceased was tested positive for Covid-19, the claim of the petitioner cannot be rejected,” the court said, adding that there was overwhelming evidence on record, particularly the cause of death certificate, clearly demonstrating that the deceased passed away due to covid-19.

The court has now directed the district collector to forward Machindra’s claim to the competent authority, which has been asked to decide the claim within two months.