HC seeks Delhi govt stand on Covid compensation for kin of cops

Appearing for the Delhi government, advocate Santosh Kumar Tripathi said that 75 per cent of the applications seeking ex-gratia amount have been entertained and amounts have been disbursed. He said that individual petitions have been filed before the High Court seeking this prayer. He, however, submitted that a status report will be filed.

The plea claims that it has been filed for the benefit of families of Delhi Police officials who died of Covid while discharging their duty. The plea further claims that it found out through an RTI application that 79 police personnel have died on duty.

The plea refers to a July 27, 2020 order of Divisional Commissioner (Revenue), which refers to a cabinet decision of the Delhi government passed on May 13, 2020, stating that “if any person including doctor, nurse, para-medical staff, security/sanitation staff or any other government officer/official, including police, whether temporary or permanent employee or contractual in any government or private sector deployed by government of NCT of Delhi, expires by contracting the disease during discharge of his duties, his/her family shall be paid an ex-gratia of amount Rs 1 crore posthumously”.

The plea refers to a tweet by CM Arvind Kejriwal on April 1, 2020, which read, “If anyone loses their life while serving any #Covid-19 patient, be it sanitation workers, doctors, or nurses or any other staff, temporary or permanent, from private or government sector, their families will be given Rs 1 crore as our mark of respect for their service.”

The plea states the CM held a press conference and “conveyed to public at large in media that the scheme of awarding of Rs 1 crore to corona warriors will not only be allowed to doctors and nurses but also to all the persons working in the field, which includes civil defence volunteers, police persons and sanitation workers.”

The plea further alleges that through a February 2021 reply to its RTI application the petitioners were “shocked to know” that out of the files of 15 families of police officials who died in covid while discharging their duties and sought the ex gratia amount, the Delhi government had rejected 12 files without “assigning any reasons” and remaining three are pending.

The plea also refers to CM Kejriwal’s tweet on May 7, 2020 regarding constable Amit Kuamr’s death who was the first police personnel who succumbed to Covid-19 and the tweet stated that “His family shall be given ex-gratia of Rs. 1 crore”. The plea claims that petitioners further found out that Amit Kumar’s widow has filed a petition before the high court seeking grant of this ex-gratia amount and the high court has “directed the State of GNCT to not further delay the ex-gratia amount to the family of the deceased constableAmit Kumar via order dated 14-12-2022”.