Bombay HC Directs MSRTC To Pay ₹50 Lakh Compensation To COVID-19 Deceased Employee’s Wife

Mumbai, Feb 27: The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) to pay compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the wife of an employee who was deployed at the Wadala depot and died due to COVID in April 2021 in Nashik district.

A bench of Justices Makarand Karnik and Shriram Modak, on February 24, noted that the widow was entitled to compensation while hearing her plea.

Challenge to rejection of compensation

Sunita Bapu Jagtap had challenged the MSRTC’s decisions of January 2022 and March 2023 rejecting the compensation claim, stating that deceased Bapu Jagtap “was not assigned essential services and he was not the driver involved in the interstate transport”.

Court directs payment with interest clause

The bench directed MSRTC to pay Rs 45 lakh as compensation to the petitioner within eight weeks and adjust Rs 5 lakh already paid. In case MSRTC fails to pay compensation within eight weeks, the HC has directed payment of interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum.

Court criticises ‘narrow view’

The court remarked that the MSRTC took a “narrow view” and “forgot the precarious situation prevailing during the Covid period when no one was ready to go out of the house for discharging their duties”.

It emphasised that the deceased, while discharging his duty, was supposed to interact and come in contact with the drivers and conductors who were actually involved in driving the buses, thereby exposing him to the same risk.

“The court can take a judicial notice that the life of the general public came to a standstill and the public services, including transport, were kept open for limited services. It was part of the duty of the husband of the petitioner to attend the job which he had done at the risk of his life,” the bench noted.

Observations on pandemic conditions

It further added: “The court can take a judicial notice of the difficulties faced in arranging the medicines. The respondents cannot avoid their responsibility. Coronavirus was widespread. The governments have exercised the power under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.”

Employee’s deployment and illness

Jagtap was deployed at the BEST bus depot in Wadala to supervise traffic and worked there from March 24 to March 28, 2021. After falling ill, he took leave from March 29 to March 31 and returned to Manmad in Nashik district.

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He received treatment from a local dispensary and later tested positive for COVID-19 on April 5, 2021. He passed away two days later at the Sub-District Hospital in Yevala, Nashik district, due to COVID-related pneumonia.

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