The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a plea related to the central government’s insurance scheme for doctors who died while serving patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, observing, “Society will not forgive us if we don’t take care of our doctors,” and asked the government to compel the insurance companies to honour valid claims relating to the deceased doctors.
Hearing the matter, Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha, heading a Bench with Justice R. Mahadevan, underlined the duty of the state to protect medical professionals who risked their lives in the fight against the virus. “Society will not forgive us if we don’t take care of our doctors,” Justice Narasimha observed.
The case concerns doctors who succumbed to COVID-19 while treating patients but were not formally designated as being on government duty, leading to disputes over their eligibility for compensation under the Pradhan Mantri Insurance Scheme for Health professionals fighting COVID-19.
Addressing Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, who appeared for the Centre, Justice Narasimha said the government must ensure that genuine claims are honoured. “You should compel the insurance company to pay if, according to you, two conditions are met — that they were on COVID response and that they died because of COVID,” he remarked.
He added that the government’s approach must not assume that doctors working independently during the pandemic were acting for profit. “Merely because they were not on government duty, the assumption that they were making profits or sitting idle is not correct,” the judge said.
The Bench clarified that it would not assess individual claims but instead lay down broad principles for deciding the insurance claims. “We will not go into individual cases. We will only lay down the principles,” Justice Narasimha noted, explaining that the criteria would hinge on two factors — whether the doctor was actively engaged in medical service treating COVID patients and whether death resulted from a COVID-19 infection.
Justice Narasimha further stated that there must be credible evidence that a doctor “volunteered to offer medical services by keeping a clinic or hospital open for patients” and that the death was directly linked to the infection. Once these two conditions are met, the government should compel the insurance companies to pay.
The court also sought data from the central government about other insurance or parallel schemes available to healthcare professionals who died in service during the pandemic. “Give us information about other parallel schemes apart from the present Pradhan Mantri scheme,” Justice Narasimha directed. “We will lay down the principles, and on that basis, claims can be made to the insurance company. It will be for the company to decide in accordance with our judgment.”