Claimant Must Establish Case Of Victim’s COVID Infection By Placing Test Reports Or COVID Death Certificate For Claiming Compensation: Allahabad High Court

The High Court was considering a Writ Petition filed under Article 226 questioning the validity of the order passed by the District Magistrate, Firozabad, whereby the claim of the petitioner for ex gratia compensation for his wife dying of COVID-19 was rejected.

The Division Bench of Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Garima Prashad stated, “We are clear that in the case in hand the claim has been rejected on the ground that there was no material available on record to establish that it was the death of covid 19. Therefore, the cases that have been relied upon are of no help to the petitioner.”

“A claimant must establish a case of covid infection qua the victim by placing test reports or must have a covid death certificate to rely upon”, it added.

Factual Background

The case as set up by the Petitioner, was that the respondents had manifestly erred in rejecting the claim of the petitioner for ex gratia compensation for the reasons that the Government order in that regard had not been correctly interpreted to hold that the petitioner's wife did not die of COVID-19. It was brought to the Court’s notice that the petitioner's wife was working as an Assistant Teacher in a school while she was allotted election duty on April 7, 2021. It was submitted that while going for duty, she suffered Covid-19 and ultimately, when her condition worsened, she was taken to the hospital, but she could not survive.

Reasoning

The Bench took note of the fact that while a claim of ex gratia compensation was set up, no documents were placed by the petitioner evidencing the factum of infection of Covid-19 in respect of his wife, who died on the day she was admitted to the hospital.

The Bench further noticed that a complete scheme was floated by the State Government vide a government order dated 1st June, 2021, for ex gratia compensation. The clauses therein very specifically provided for the kind of documents that were required to be placed before the authority while the claim of ex gratia compensation was set up. On a perusal of such clauses, the Bench explained that if a deceased has become a victim of Covid-19 and dies within a period of 30 days of the date of first infection of Covid-19 or the first report that the patient had suffered Covid-19, a death certificate may not be required.

“The RTPCR report and Antigen negative test report would hardly matter in the event a death certificate is available to show that a person died due to covid 19. Thus, in a case where a person carries a certificate that the patient died due to covid 19, he may not be in possession of a positive test report. In that circumstances also such claim of compensation can be allowed”, it held.

The Bench found that no such document was ever placed before the authority to demonstrate that a patient died due to Covid-19or that the patient who died was already suffering from pandemic Covid-19. Taking note of the fact that no material was available on record to establish that it was the death of Covid-19, the Bench dismissed the Petition.

Cause Title: Ajay Kumar v. State Of U.P. And 3 Others (Neutral Citation: 2026:AHC:49943-DB)

Appearance

Petitioner: Advocate Neeraj Shukla

Respondent: Chief Standing Counsel

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