Bombay High Court rejects claims of widow asking for COVID-19 compensation

Bombay High Court dismisses widow's petition seeking Rs 50 lakh compensation for handpump helper's COVID-19 death.

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on April 16 dismissed a petition filed by the widow of a handpump helper who died during the pandemic. A division bench of judges, Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice R.M. Joshi said there was nothing “perverse or erroneous” in the order passed by the Maharashtra government that had earlier rejected the woman’s application seeking compensation of ₹50 lakh. A copy of the judgment passed on March 28 was made available on April 16.  

The petition was filed by a woman named Kanchan Hamshette from Nanded district of Maharashtra. After her husband passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Hamshette wrote an application to the State government seeking an ex-gratia of ₹50 lakh for the death of her husband. In her petition, she claimed that her late husband was a government employee who came under the category of essential services. He passed away in April 2021 due to a COVID-19 infection.  

The State of Maharashtra in their argument said that Ms. Hamshette’s husband was not employed on COVID-19 duty but was a handpump helper.  

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Maharashtra government introduced a comprehensive accidental cover of ₹50 lakh to employees on various COVID-19 duties: healthcare workers, survey officers, teams engaged in relief tasks and those involved in tracing, tracking and testing the virus. She had pleaded to the court to quash the November 2023 State government’s communication rejecting her application.  

Responding to her petition, the court agreed to the point that such cases must be dealt with sensitivity; however, “Such cases must be scrutinised thoroughly. But it must be kept in mind that cases not qualified for payment of ₹50 lakh as ex-gratia cannot be entertained as if such amounts are a bounty. If such cases are dealt casually and compensation amounts granted, people ineligible for such compensation would receive ₹50 lakh from the taxpayers’ money,” the court said in its judgement.