High Court directs Delhi govt to pay Rs 50,000 ex-gratia to kin of Covid-19 victim

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has directed the city government to pay Rs 50,000 ex gratia to the kin of a man who had contracted coronavirus and died due to Covid-19 complications.

The high court refused to accept the state's submission the cause of the death was a cardiac arrest and the man passed away a month after a positive RT-PCR report and was, therefore, not entitled to a compensation under the Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Pariwar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana (MCPASY).

The court noted the hospital's death summary that the petitioner's husband contracted Covid-19 and was admitted and remained at the hospital till his death on June 19, 2021.

"The death summary categorically points out that the man had contracted Covid-19, and suffered aftereffects of Covid-19, never improved and ultimately passed away on June 19, 2021. Just because the ultimate cause of death is shown to be cardiac arrest does not mean that the husband of the petitioner did not pass away due to the complications arising out of Covid-19," Justice Subramonium Prasad said.

The court was dealing with a woman's petition seeking direction to the state authorities to release compensation under the MCPASY for her husband's death due to Covid-19 in 2021.

The high court also referred to a Supreme Court's 2021 judgment regarding grant of ex gratia assistance to the kin of the persons who passed away due to Covid-19.

In the judgment, the apex court had made clear that irrespective of the cause of death mentioned in the death certificate, if a family member satisfies the requisite eligibility criteria, he or she shall also be entitled to the ex gratia payment of Rs 50,000 on production of requisite documents and no state shall deny on the ground that in the death certificate the cause of death is not mentioned as "died due to Covid-19".

The high court said the facts of the case clearly show that the woman's husband had contracted Covid-19 and was admitted in the hospital on April 25, 2021 and his health condition did not improve and he passed away after two months in the hospital itself due to Covid-19 complications, a fact which is evident from the medical certificate of the cause of death issued by the hospital.

"Resultantly, respondent no.3 (SDM concerned) is directed to release the sum of ex-gratia payment under the MCPASY scheme to the petitioner herein forthwith within a period of two weeks from today," Justice Prasad said in a February 6 order.

The Delhi government counsel and the SDM submitted that as per the death summary of the man, the cause of death was cardiac arrest and as per the notification for grant of ex gratia payment under the MCPASY scheme, either the deceased's name should be in the list of Covid-19 death cases (MHA) or the death should be within one month of an RT-PCR positive report which is to be certified by the Health Department.

They said that the man's name does not figure in the list of deaths that occurred due to Covid-19 and he was not entitled for ex-gratia.