Facts: The petitioners, legal heirs of the late Shri Unmesh Sharad Kulkarni, a Class IV employee of Manmad Municipal Council, filed a writ petition seeking directions for the release of Rs. 50,00,000/- as Covid compensation. Shri Kulkarni died on 29/03/2021 due to Covid-19 while serving as force staff to tackle the Covid-19 surge. The Municipal Council had forwarded a proposal to the Collector, but it was delayed due to incomplete documents and failure to upload the deceased's name on the ICMR portal. The hospital (Respondent no. 6) apologized for the ICMR portal failure.
Procedural Posture: The case came before the Bombay High Court via a Writ Petition (No. 11611 of 2024) under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking a direction to the respondents (State of Maharashtra and others) to release the Covid compensation.
Issue: Whether the petitioners are entitled to the ex-gratia compensation of Rs. 50,00,000/- as per the Government Resolution (GR) for municipal employees who died due to Covid-19, and whether the procedural delays in processing the claim are justified, especially considering the deceased was a frontline worker.
Holding: The Bombay High Court directed the Collector, Nashik, to process the proposal forwarded by the Manmad Municipal Council immediately and forward it to Respondent No. 7, proceeding on the basis that the submitted documents are genuine and that Shri Unmesh Kulkarni died due to the Corona virus.
Reasoning: The Court found that the Municipal Council had already scrutinized the proposal and forwarded it, clearly mentioning Covid-19 as the cause of death. The Court noted that the deceased was a frontline worker and that delaying the compensation due to procedural technicalities would be unjust. The court emphasized that expecting the employee to be admitted only to a government hospital during the pandemic to claim entitlement is arbitrary. The court cited a previous judgment, Vijaya Yashwant Jadhav and ors Vs. Block Development Officer and ors, highlighting the sacrifices of frontline workers during the pandemic and the need to support their families. The Court directed the Collector to forward the proposal within four weeks to the State Government, with necessary approvals to be granted within four weeks thereafter, and compensation to be paid within ten weeks.