The Supreme Court on Thursday (December11) ruled that families of medical professionals including private doctors who died while treating patients during the Covid-19 pandemic are entitled to insurance benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). Their claims cannot be rejected simply because these doctors were not formally “requisitioned” by the government.
A bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and R. Mahadevan set aside a Bombay High Court order that had taken the opposite view. The judges said it was clear that the laws and regulations issued during the pandemic were meant to mobilise all available medical personnel and that the insurance scheme was designed to reassure frontline workers that the nation stood behind them.
The court clarified that the PMGKY insurance cover extended to all doctors and health workers who were, in effect, brought into Covid duty through legal or administrative measures during the emergency. It rejected the argument that there was no official requisition of medical staff.
The bench said individual insurance claims must now be evaluated according to the law and the evidence presented. The responsibility lies with the claimant to prove that the deceased healthcare worker died while performing Covid-related duties, using credible documentation.
If it is clearly shown that a doctor or health worker was actively engaged in Covid care and died in the process, the insurance policy must be applied, the court added.
The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package, launched in March 2020, was introduced to provide financial protection to the families of frontline health workers who lost their lives due to Covid-19.