‘Electricity dept staff frontline workers’: Allahabad High Court directs Rs 50 lakh Covid relief to deceased woman’s family

‘Person maintaining electricity supply integral part’

• The Allahabad High Court referred to Section 2(a)(ix) of the Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1968.
• It empowers the government to declare any service as an essential service where cessation thereof on account of strike or disruption would prejudicially affect maintenance of any public utility service, public safety, supplies or services necessary for the life of the community, or would cause grave hardship to the community.
• The court remarked that the electricity supply squarely satisfies all the aforesaid tests.
• Even where electricity is not expressly enumerated in a particular clause, it unmistakably falls within the ambit of public utility services and services “indispensable for the life of the community”, the Allahabad High Court noted.

• The bench held that personnel engaged in maintaining the electricity supply formed an integral part of the state response mechanism and cannot be excluded from the category of frontline workers merely because they were not physically stationed within hospital premises.
• The Allahabad High Court refused to accept a ‘narrow interpretation’ of government orders, noting that it would not only be against public interest but would also be hit by Article 14 (right to equality) and 21 (right to protection of life and liberty) of the Constitution.
• Government orders deserve a liberal, purposive and pragmatic construction, and frontline workers engaged in uninterrupted supply of essential services at the risk of their life would be deemed to be instrumental in containment of Covid-19, and are thus protected by the relevant government orders, the order stated.
• The court, therefore, held the petitioner entitled to ex gratia compensation. While refraining from remanding the matter back to the authorities for reconsideration, the court directed the state government to release the compensation.

Plea for compensation

The victim was employed in the electricity department under the Northern Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited, Krishna Nagar, Mathura.

She was deployed from April 1 to April 15, 2021, to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply to Covid hospitals, quarantine centres and other essential facilities during the pandemic. She later tested Covid-positive and died on April 24, 2021.

After the recommendation for the release of ex gratia compensation was made, no communication was made to the petitioner in this regard. Feeling aggrieved by the inaction, the petitioner moved the Allahabad High Court.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that the petitioner’s mother was a frontline worker employed in the electricity department. It was contended that no hospital could have been run in the absence of a regular and uninterrupted supply of electricity, as the operation of hospital facilities like ventilators and other medical equipment requires an uninterrupted electricity supply.

The state government opposed the plea on the grounds that she was not directly involved in treatment or containment activities related to Covid-19. It was further argued that the inclusion of all employees involved in essential services would cause a heavy financial burden upon the state exchequer, and as such, the scope of government orders could not be enlarged by giving any other interpretation.