Patna: The Patna high court has directed the Bihar govt to follow the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court while determining the eligibility of applicants seeking ex-gratia compensation for Covid-19 deaths in the state.A single bench of Justice Alok Kumar, while allowing a writ petition filed by Aneesh Singh and seven others, also ruled that state authorities cannot reject claims merely because the Covid-19 test report was issued by a laboratory that was not authorised or empanelled by the govt. The court said authorities should adopt a holistic approach while assessing such claims. The judgement was delivered on Wednesday.The Supreme Court, in its Oct 4, 2021 order in Gaurav Kumar Bansal v Union of India, had laid down parameters for hospitals and public authorities to determine whether a death was attributable to Covid-19.The eight petitioners, residents of Mokama and Maranchi areas of Patna district, had applied for compensation following the deaths of their relatives during the second wave of the pandemic under the ‘Bihar Covid-19 Sahayata Yojana, 2022’. Their applications were rejected despite the authorities acknowledging the deaths as Covid-related, as the test reports had not been issued by empanelled laboratories.While directing the state authorities to consider hospital and medical records and death certificates issued by competent authorities, Justice Kumar said, “In a welfare state, the govt has binding constitutional duties to act as a guardian of public welfare, ensuring just and proper relief and financial compensation to citizens harmed in a national crisis like Covid-19. The state govt cannot be a distant spectator to human sufferings.”
