SC – Private Doctors Requisitioned in Covid-19 Entitled to Rs.50 lakhs PMGKY Insurance
Judgment dated 11.12.2025 of the Supreme Court of India in SLP (Civil) No.16860 of 2021 of Rajdeep Arora and others Vs. Director, Health Department, Government of Maharashtra and others
SC Landmark Humanitarian Interpretation of Insurance Claim of deceased Doctor of a private clinic in Navi Mumbai
SC – Private Doctors Requisitioned in Covid-19 Entitled to Rs.50 lakhs PMGKY Insurance
PM Garib Kalyan Yojna – Covid-19 – Insurance Claim for death of Doctor
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation issued notice dated 31.3.2020 directing late husband of the appellant no.3 to keep his hospital / dispensary open during the lock down period as per Regulation 10 of the Maharashtra Prevention and Containment of Covid-19 Regulations, 2020.
The late doctor husband of the appellant died on 10.6.2020 due to Covid-19.
The claim of the appellant no.3 for insurance of deceased doctor was rejected on the ground that there was no proof of “requisitioning” of his services for Covid-related duties. The High Court has drawn the distinction between specific requisition of services and directing private practitioners to keep their clinic open in Covid-19.
HELD that the situation existing in March, 2020 and invocation of the Epidemic Diseases Act coupled with the Regulations of 2020, clearly shows that the Government had requisitioned services of doctors and other health professionals to be on the frontline. Truth and reality of requisitioning is also evidence from various government decisions not only to requisition services of government employees for also private doctors and hospitals.
The courage and sacrifice of by our doctors remain indelible, as five years following the pandemic that spared us, we are now called upon to interpret the laws and regulations enacted for urgent requisition of doctors and health professionals to safeguard public from the seemingly overwhelming onslaught of Covid 2019. We have no hesitation in concluding that invocation of laws and Regulations were intended to leave no stone unturned in requisitioning the doctors and the insurance scheme was equally intended to assure doctors and health professionals in the front line that the country is with them. In this view of the matter, we are not inclined to take the view that there was no requisitioning of the doctors and medical professionals.
