‘Society Won't Forgive Us If…’: Supreme Court On Doctors' Covid-19 Compensation Case

Last Updated:October 28, 2025, 19:44 IST

Supreme Court urges insurance for all doctors who died fighting COVID-19, including private clinic staff, stressing society must support medical professionals.

Supreme Court of India (Image: PTI/File)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday emphasised that society will not forgive the judiciary if it doesn’t take care of medical professionals, particularly those who sacrificed their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The top court was hearing a petition against non-inclusion of doctors and health workers who lost their lives battling Covid-19 at private clinics, dispensaries, and non-recognised hospitals in insurance policies, news agency PTI reported.

A bench of Justice P S Narasimha and Justice R Mahadevan said the government must ensure that insurance companies settle the valid claims, and added that the assumption that private doctors were working for profit-making was not correct.

“Society wouldn’t forget us if we don’t take care of our doctors. The first profession that protects human life is the doctor….this country wouldn’t forget us if we don’t stand by doctors and take care of them," Justice Narasimha remarked.

“You should compel the insurance company to pay if, according to you the condition is met that they were on Covid response and they died because of Covid. Merely because they were not in government duty, the assumption that they were making profits and then they were sitting is not correct," the bench observed.

The Court clarified that it would not adjudicate individual claims but would instead lay down broad principles to guide the implementation of the insurance scheme. “We will not go into individual claims. We will just lay down the principles," Justice Narasimha said, adding that the criteria would focus on whether the deceased doctor was actively engaged in medical service and whether death was a result of Covid-19 infection.

What’s The Case?

The top court was hearing a plea by Pradeep Arora and others against a March 9, 2021, order of the Bombay High Court, which held that private hospital staffers were not entitled to receive benefits under the insurance scheme unless their services were requisitioned by the state or the Central government.

A plea was filed in the high court by Kiran Bhaskar Surgade, who lost her husband — who ran a private clinic in Thane — to Covid-19 in 2020.

The insurance company rejected her claim under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) on the ground that her husband’s clinic was not recognised as a Covid-19 hospital.

The PMGKP was announced in March 2020, and its coverage has been extended since then.

It was launched to provide a safety net to the health workers to ensure that in case of any adversity due to Covid-19, their families are taken care of.

An insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh is provided to the health workers under the PMKGP scheme, which has become a safety net for the dependents of the Covid warriors who lost their lives to the infection.

(With inputs from agencies)

Shobhit Gupta

Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben...Read More

Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben...

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