Delhi High Court: The Division Bench of Vipin Sanghi, ACJ and Navin Chawla, J., held that this Court cannot direct payment of ex gratia compensation of Rs 1 Crore to families whose members died due to COVID-19.
A petition was filed seeking the following reliefs:
- To issue a Writ of Mandamus or order or direction of the similar nature directing respondents to provide ex gratia compensation Rs 1 crore to all families whose members have died due to COVID-19 virus or due to post COVID infections within one month of recovering from COVID without any discrimination
- Issue writ of mandamus or order or direction of the similar nature directing respondents to formulate proper policy and guidelines for providing ex gratia payment or compensation to all families whose members have died due to COVID-19 or due to post covid infections within one month of recovering from COVID
- Issue Writ of prohibition or order or direction of the similar nature thereby prohibiting the Respondents to stop paying compensation Rs 1 crore to the families of selected persons only merely on the basis of pick and choose without any guidelines, and,
- Issue Writ of Mandamus against the Respondents to provide social security and rehabilitation to victims of Covid 19 Victims, and.
High Court opined that it cannot direct payment of ex gratia compensation of Rs 1 Crore to all the families whose members died due to COVID-19.
Further, the Bench added that, the GNCTD had already formulated a uniform policy for the payment of ex gratia compensation to the kin of the deceased who died due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In view of a policy already being framed, the third prayer was also stood addressed.
The matter was disposed of in view of the above discussion. [Dr Vidyottma Jha v. GNCTD, 2022 SCC OnLine Del 993, decided on 5-4-2022]
Advocates before the Court:
For the Petitioner:
Dr Abhishek Atrey with Mr Brijesh Panchal, and Dr Vidyottma Jha, Advs.
For the Respondent:
Mr Santosh Kr. Tripathi, SC, Civil, GNCTD with Mr Arun Panwar, Mr Siddharth K. Dwivedi and Mr Aditya Jadhav, Advs.