The Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 1.99 crore to Sarita Singh, whose husband Sunil Kumar was shot dead in April 2016 while discharging duties in Udham Singh Nagar district.
The ruling comes on a petition filed by Singh, who hails from Kanpur, before the court in June 2017. The directions were issued by the division bench of acting chief justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari.
Singh had made a representation before the chief secretary, along with a copy to the chief minister for providing extraordinary pension under Rule 10 of the Uttar Pradesh Civil Services (Extraordinary Pension) Rules, 1981.
The chief medical officer, Udham Singh Nagar had also sent a communication in 2016 to the director medical department for providing compensation to the petitioner.
The HC said: “The petitioner’s husband was discharging the official duties at CHC, Jaspur. He was shot dead on 20.4.2016. The chief minister has agreed to pay compensation of Rs 50 lakh but till date, only a sum of Rs 1 lakh has been paid to the petitioner.”
“It was the duty of the state government to protect the life of the petitioner’s husband. He was on duty as per the averments made in the petition. Killing a doctor, while on duty, amounts to negation of rule of law,” the order said.
{{/usCountry}}“It was the duty of the state government to protect the life of the petitioner’s husband. He was on duty as per the averments made in the petition. Killing a doctor, while on duty, amounts to negation of rule of law,” the order said.
{{/usCountry}}HC also noted: “The petitioner was entitled to extraordinary pension as per the Uttar Pradesh Civil Services (Extraordinary Pension) Rules, 1981, as amended from time to time. The stand taken by the respondent - state that the rules are not applicable is not tenable. The purpose of framing these rules is to help a family after the death of an employee on duty,” the order said.
The court said it can take judicial note of the fact that doctors also risk their lives while performing their duties.
The HC said: “The petitioner’s husband was 51 years of age at the time when he was shot dead. His last drawn salary was Rs 1,27,300. He was bound to be promoted to the post of chief medical officer (CMO). In case of promotion to the CMO, his salary would have been Rs 1,91,000.
“Even after making necessary deductions, the figure comes to Rs 1,25,300. The reasonable multiplier at the age of ‘51’ would be ‘11’. Thus, the family is entitled to Rs 1,89,09,000 as compensation. The petitioner’s family is also entitled to the loss of consortium and love and affection quantified as Rs 10 lakh,” the order said.
The court also directed the government to award extraordinary pension to the petitioner as per the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Civil Services (Extraordinary Pension) Rules, 1981within 10 weeks along with arrears at the rate of 8.5% per annum.
It also directed the state government to enforce the provisions of ‘Uttarakhand Medicare Service Persons and Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2013, in letter and spirit.