Don't stick to technicalities: Madras High Court directs processing of insurance claim for doctor's COVID-19 death without insisting on RT-PCR

The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the State to process the insurance claim made by the wife of a medical practitioner who had lost his life due to COVID-19 without insisting on an RT-PCR test report (B Varalakshmi vs. Department of Health and Family Welfare)..The Court granted the relief in view of the fact that a chest COVID screening test had already determined that the deceased doctor had been afflicted with COVID-19. .On the other hand, his widow's claim for insurance had earlier been denied owing to the unavailability of an RT-PCR COVID-19 test report. .While brushing aside the need for an RT-PCR report in this case Justice N Anand Venkatesh observed,.“In cases of this nature, the Authorities must not stick to technicalities and the claim must be considered with more humanness with the available documents which clearly substantiates the fact that the husband of the petitioner was suffering from COVID-19.”.The Court proceeded to direct the concerned authorities to process the widow's claim for COVID-19 insurance coverage under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Package Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting COVID-19 without insisting on the RT-PCR report of the deceased medical practitioner..“If not for the selfless services rendered by the Doctors, a major population of this country would have been wiped out due to the deadly COVID-19. Therefore, the least that should be done for a Doctor, who has lost his life due to COVID-19, which had spread to him while he was on duty, is to acknowledge the selfless service of the Doctor and provide with the necessary compensation to his family under the laudable scheme", the judge observed further. .The Central government insurance scheme was introduced for the benefit of public and private healthcare providers. If such frontline workers lose their life to COVID-19, they are provided a coverage of Rs. 50,00,000..In this case, the petitioner's husband had retired from government service in 2016 and was conducting private practice. He developed symptoms of COVID-19 and became critical..As a result of his deteriorating health, he was directly subjected to the CT-Chest COVID Screening Test, which determined that he was afflicted with COVID-19. The Court noted that his symptoms were so serious that the private hospital felt that time cannot be wasted by merely taking an RT-PCR test..He succumbed to the illness on August 3, 2020..His wife, being completely dependent on her husband, made a representation to seek benefit under the scheme. On being requested for documents, she was not able to produce the RT-PCR test report since the hospital had directly conducted a CT scan for determination of his illness..The Court has now directed the authorities to take a decision on providing insurance coverage to the petitioner-widow within a period of four weeks after receiving the documents available with her. .Once the decision is taken, necessary instructions are to be given to the nodal agency to pay the amount due under the insurance scheme to the petitioner, the Court added..The petitioner was represented by Advocate R Maheswaran. Assistant Solicitor General Victoria Gowri, government advocate M Lingadurai, and Standing Counsel N Dilipkumar represented the respondents..[Read Order]