Prayagraj : The Allahabad high court has held that a claim for ex gratia assistance of Rs 50 lakh under the govt’s Covid-19 scheme cannot be rejected merely for want of a positive RT-PCR report when a govt hospital’s own records show a positive antigen result and the authorities themselves accept the infection and cause of death.
The court noted that, on the recommendation of the chief general manager and a committee headed by the chief development officer, the district magistrate approved the claim in June 2021, and the certificates were later verified as correct. Rejecting this contention, the court observed that the GO dated July 26, 2021, recognised RT-PCR, antigen or CT scan reports as valid proof of infection. The state argued that the govt order required such a report to be uploaded and that the claim could not be processed without it. It further noted that the scheme also permitted other sources of confirmation where testing was not conducted through the specified methods.