New Delhi: The Supreme Court stated on Tuesday that society will not forgive the judiciary if it fails to support doctors, condemning the belief that private doctors were motivated by profit during the Covid-19 pandemic. A bench, consisting of Justices P S Narasimha and R Mahadevan, made these comments while deliberating on a plea regarding the exclusion of doctors and healthcare workers who died while combating Covid-19 at private clinics, dispensaries, and unrecognized hospitals from insurance coverage. The bench declared, “Society will not forgive us if we don’t take care of our doctors and don’t stand for them…”. It emphasized the necessity for the government to ensure that insurance companies honor valid claims.
The bench remarked, “You should compel the insurance company to pay if, according to you, the condition is met that they were on Covid response, and they died because of Covid”. The court argued that the presumption that private doctors were solely profit-driven was inaccurate. It noted that these doctors were not on government duty, and the assumption of profit was unfounded. The bench urged the Centre to provide relevant data and information regarding other similar or parallel insurance schemes beyond the Pradhan Mantri Insurance Scheme. “We will establish the principle, and claims can subsequently be made to the insurance company based on our judgment,” the bench added.
The bench was considering a plea from Pradeep Arora and others contesting a March 9, 2021, ruling by the Bombay High Court, which stated that staff at private hospitals were not eligible for benefits under the insurance scheme unless their services were requisitioned by the state or Centre. This ruling stemmed from a plea by Kiran Bhaskar Surgade, whose husband, who operated a private clinic in Thane, succumbed to Covid-19 in 2020. The insurance company denied her claim under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP), asserting that her husband’s clinic was not recognized as a Covid-19 hospital.
The PMGKP was introduced in March 2020, and its coverage has been extended since then, providing an insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh to healthcare workers under the scheme, serving as a safety net for the dependents of Covid warriors who lost their lives to the virus.