Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has reprimanded the Uttarakhand government that it did not pay compensation to the widow of the government doctor who was killed at the Community Health Center in April 2016, while the then Chief Minister approved the decision to give Rs 50 lakh. Troubled by this, the woman has been fighting the case for compensation for the last 9 years.
Let me tell you that on April 20, 2016, the woman’s husband was shot by some attackers while on duty at Community Health Care, Jaspur. The victim’s family says that if 50 lakh rupees had been given as an ex -gratia amount in 2016 itself, they did not need to fight the case for nine years.
What did the Supreme Court say?
According to the report of Live Law, the Supreme Court said that it is angry with the Uttarakhand government that the doctor’s family is forced to fight the case for compensation for the last 9 years, so now they should be compensated with these years interest. The court has ordered the state government to give Rs 1 crore to the victim’s family.
The court said in its order, “Prima facie we believe that even after the Chief Secretary approved the proposal to give Rs 50 lakh to the family of the deceased, it has not been accepted and the family has been fighting the case for more than nine years. The request made by the family to issue the sanctioned amount has not been accepted by the pretext that the said amount has not been approved. Our view should not be approved. Thus, we pay a total amount of Rs 1 crore by adding interest for about 9 years. ”
Order to give additional pension benefits to the family
The bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Arvind Kumar passed the order in a special permission petition filed by the state of Uttarakhand. In the year 2018, the Uttarakhand High Court directed the state government to compensation Rs 1.99 crore to the victim’s family. The High Court had ordered Rs 1.99 crore to the widow with 7.5 % annual interest till the verdict was pronounced from the filing of the petition. At the same time, the state’s Medicare Service Person and Institutions Act, 2013 was also asked to implement the provisions and give additional pension benefits to the family.
The Supreme Court said that even after the Chief Secretary of the state government proposed a compensation of Rs 50 lakh and approved by the Chief Minister, the victim’s family was not given the amount, while he was told that the approval was not received. The petitioner says that till now only one lakh rupees have been given to the family as an ex -gratia amount. The court said that in view of this, the state government is ordered that it will give this amount to the family with nine years of interest, which becomes a total of one crore rupees.
What did the Uttarakhand government say?
During the hearing, the state government told the court that Rs 11 lakh has already been given to the family. He said that on the direction of the Supreme Court of 2021, the family was given holiday money, gratuity, GPF, family pension and GIS, while his son was also appointed as a junior assistant in the health department. After hearing the plea of the state government, the court has removed 11 lakh out of Rs 1 crore to Rs 89 lakh.