SC says PMGKY insurance applies to requisitioned COVID-19 doctors

The Supreme Court on Friday observed that the nation must not forget the unwavering sacrifice and heroism of doctors and health workers during the pandemic days while holding that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY) insurance package benefits would apply to public and private medical professionals drafted into COVID-19 duties, only to lose their lives in service.

The Indian Medical Association’s COVID-19 registry records 748 doctors’ deaths in the first wave and hundreds more in subsequent waves. One estimate noted that around 798 doctors died during the second wave alone.

The PMGKY package offered a comprehensive personal accident cover of ₹50 lakh for 90 days to a total of around 22.12 lakh public healthcare providers, including community health workers, who were in direct contact and care of COVID-19 patients.

“Four years after the pandemic, when we are called upon to interpret the government’s assurance under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna, we can neither forget the situation that prevailed in 2020 nor the purport of state’s assurance to the doctors who were ‘requisitioned’ invoking special laws and regulations,” Justice P. S. Narasimha observed in a 25-page judgment.

The verdict came in a petition filed on the death of a doctor who ran a private clinic in Maharashtra. Dr. B.S. Surgade’s widow claimed his services were requisitioned by the government to keep his clinic open during the pandemic. She said he had fatally contracted the virus from his patients.

However, the State government denied requisitioning Dr. Surgade’s services during the pandemic.

The court, however, held that the State did indeed requisition doctors, whether they were in public or private practice. It said the situation was so severe that the government did not have much of a choice.

“There is no gainsaying about the fact that circumstances in which the country was reeling under the COVID-19 pandemic required States and their instrumentalities to take immediate measures. This included requisitioning and drafting of doctors and other healthcare professionals as an emergent measure, as many as possible and as early as State can,” the court said.

It said individual claims for PMGKY insurance would be decided on a case-to-case basis.

“Once we have decided that there was ‘requisition’, the applicability of the insurance policy will then depend upon actual evidence. Whether the doctor or healthcare professional has, and in fact, presented and offered his or her services in furtherance of COVID-19-related responsibilities is a matter of evidence. If there is clear evidence that the deceased lost his life while performing COVID-19-related duties, the policy will have to be applied,” the court declared.

The onus to prove that a deceased lost his life while performing a COVID-19-related duty is on the claimant and needs to be established on the basis of credible evidence.