The Kolhapur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday (December 23, 2025) directed the Maharashtra government to grant the ₹50 lakh ex gratia insurance benefit to the family of a contractual data entry operator who died of COVID-19 after serving on pandemic duty, ruling that the date of contracting the infection—not the date of death—should determine eligibility under the scheme.
A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Karnik and Ajit B. Kadethankar quashed a May 24, 2022 order of the Public Health Department rejecting the claim of petitioner Ramesh Balu Patil, whose wife Sarita Patil died on July 4, 2021. The State had denied the benefit on the ground that the scheme was operational only till June 30, 2021.
Petitioner’s counsel N.B. Khaire argued that Sarita Patil contracted COVID-19 while discharging official duties at a Primary Health Centre under the National Rural Health Mission, “It is not in dispute that late Sarita Ramesh Patil was in the service of State Government and was discharging duties concerning Covid patients when she suffered Covid infection. Although she expired after 30th June 2021, she was infected prior to that date. The scheme is benevolent and should not be applied with technical rigidity.”
