The Bombay High Court ruled that a frontline health worker is entitled to compensation under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) even if she was serving at a hospital that was not officially notified or requisitioned for Covid-19 treatment. The case arose from a petition filed by Sunil Mohite on behalf of his deceased wife, Rekha, who worked as a staff nurse at the Police Hospital in Sangli during the Covid-19 pandemic. While on duty at the Police Hospital, she treated patients suspected of having Covid-19, predominantly police personnel, and contracted the virus. She was diagnosed with Covid-19 on April 21, 2021 and died four days later from complications related to the infection.
When Mohite applied for compensation under the PMGKP, his claim was rejected on the ground that the Police Hospital in Sangli was not listed among the hospitals officially requisitioned or categorised for Covid-19 treatment. The authorities took the position that, because the hospital was not on the list of designated Covid-19 treatment centres, the deceased did not qualify as a frontline worker entitled to the package benefits. The rejection was premised on a State-appointed committee’s classification of hospitals, which did not include the Police Hospital.
A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court, however, disagreed with this narrow interpretation of entitlement under the compensation scheme. The court observed that the primary focus of the PMGKP is to provide relief to health workers who contract Covid-19 in the course of their duty, rather than to restrict compensation solely to those serving in designated or notified Covid-19 hospitals. The bench emphasised that the relevant government order instituting the compensation scheme did not contain any stipulation requiring that the hospital where the deceased was employed must be on a notified list of Covid treatment facilities. The court stated that reading such a requirement into the scheme would undermine the benevolent purpose of the policy, which is designed to provide broad-based support to health workers who risked their lives during the pandemic.
The High Court noted that it was undisputed that Rekha was actively serving at the Police Hospital during the pandemic and was continuously on duty when she contracted and succumbed to the infection. The bench highlighted that the Police Hospital was used for preliminary treatment of suspected Covid-19 patients, who were later referred or shifted to larger Covid treatment centres based on their condition. The court observed that the health worker would have been exposed to the virus in the course of her duty at such a facility, and that the risk to which she was exposed was akin to that faced by personnel serving in designated Covid-19 centres.
The court held that the key requirement for entitlement under the PMGKP is that the health worker must be infected with Covid-19 while on duty, rather than that the infection occurred in a designated or listed Covid-19 treatment centre. It found that the competent authority had certified the cause of death as Covid-19 and confirmed that the deceased had been on duty during the relevant period preceding her death. The bench explained that it would be illogical and contrary to the objective of the scheme to deny compensation on the basis of the hospital’s classification, particularly when the worker was engaged in treating persons suspected of having Covid-19 infection.
In its reasoning, the court rejected the argument that the classification of the Police Hospital as non-Covid prevented the claim. The judges noted that many frontline health facilities provided initial examination and care to suspected Covid-19 patients before referral, and health workers at such centres were equally susceptible to contracting the virus. They emphasised that excluding such workers from compensation would frustrate the comprehensive intent of the scheme. The court further held that reliance on the hospital’s non-inclusion in a list of requisitioned treatment centres as a basis to deny compensation was arbitrary and lacked logical justification.
The bench also observed that denying the claim on such grounds could infringe the fundamental right to equality under the Constitution by subjecting similarly placed health workers to unequal treatment based solely on administrative classification rather than actual risk exposure and service rendered. In light of this, the High Court directed the authorities to pay the compensation due under the PMGKP to the petitioner, representing the deceased nurse’s husband, within a specified period. The court’s order reinforces that health workers who contract Covid-19 in the line of duty are entitled to compensation under the package, without restriction to serving in officially designated Covid-19 treatment hospitals, provided they meet the essential criterion of infection while on duty.
Case Title: Sunil Shankar Mohite v. Union of India and Others
Jurisdiction: Bombay High Court, Kolhapur Circuit Bench
Bench: Justice Ravindra Avachat and Justice Ajit Kadethankar
Relief: Compensation under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package directed to be paid to the petitioner within the stipulated timeframe.
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