Mumbai: Bombay high court has directed the state govt to extend the benefit of Rs 50 lakh compensation to the family of a zilla parishad frontline worker from Kolhapur who died of Covid in July 2021, saying the cutoff date under such a welfare scheme cannot be sacrosanct.A bench of Justices M S Karnik and Ajit B Kadethankar, while allowing a writ petition filed by the legal heirs of Yashwant Khandu Jadhav, an extension officer with Karveer Panchayat Samiti, ordered the authorities to grant the benefit within four weeks. Jadhav contracted Covid during the second wave of the pandemic on June 16, 2021. He had served as a frontline worker in the first wave, too. He was hospitalised from June 16 till his death on July 11. His wife, son and mother approached the court after the state rejected their claim on the grounds that his death occurred after June 30, 2021—the cutoff date for seeking compensation prescribed under an April 25, 2022, govt resolution. The state contended that the scheme clearly applied only to employees who died on or before June 30, 2021, and that a cutoff date was necessary for implementation of welfare measures. Rejecting the state’s narrow and technical approach, HC noted that there was no dispute that Jadhav was a frontline worker who contracted Covid in the course of his official duties. The court said the insurance scheme was welfare-oriented, meant to honour the sacrifice of frontline workers, who faced exceptional risks during the pandemic. The bench observed that Jadhav had been admitted to the hospital before June 30, 2021, his health had worsened prior to the cutoff date, and his death on July 11, 2021, was a direct continuation of the same illness. In such circumstances, the cutoff date could not be treated as “sacrosanct”, it held. “Many of these bravehearts made the ultimate sacrifice; their own lives fell victim in their courageous efforts to save others,” HC said. The court ruled that denying relief to Jadhav’s family would amount to injustice and would undermine the very purpose of the scheme.
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