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HC GIVES NOD TO DELHI GOVERNMENT’S HPC FOR COMPENSATION OF DEATH DUE TO OXYGEN SHORTAGE

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave a nod to the functioning of the High Power Committee (HPC) to look into the matter of providing compensation to people who died due to lack of oxygen during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hearing the case, a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh […]

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave a nod to the functioning of the High Power Committee (HPC) to look into the matter of providing compensation to people who died due to lack of oxygen during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hearing the case, a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said, “We see no difficulty in the High Power Committee (HPC) constituted by Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) in discharging its assigned role.” The court’s remark came after the Delhi government took the stand that the committee would not fix any liability on the hospitals and the government would pay the amount of the compensation.

Lieutenant Governor of Delhi had earlier put the committee, constituted by the Delhi government in abeyance.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Riti Singh Verma, whose husband died on May 14, 2021, due to COVID-19 in a hospital in Delhi’s Nehru Nagar.

The petitioner has sought direction from the Delhi government to operationalise the High-Power Committee it constituted and commence its functioning forthwith.

The petitioner told the Court that her husband died at the young age of 34, and he was the

only earning member of the family. She said that she has two small children to look after along with her parents.

“The untimely death of her husband due to COVID-19 has caused great financial hardship. That the deceased was working in a private company and his annual income was approx. 8 Lakh rupees,” read the petition filed by advocates Yogesh Aggarwal and Kamal Jindal.

The petitioner said that her husband was admitted in a normal and not very severe condition and was a healthy 34-year-old with no other co-morbidities and died due to cardiac arrest as per the discharge summary.

“The discharge summary appears to be copy paste job on the part of the hospital as the deceased was a male and referred to as a lady. The manner in which the petitioner’s husband case was handled casts doubt on the hospital dealing with the COVID-19 patients and also the death summary does not mention if the Oxygen was administered at any point in time when his condition started deteriorating,” the plea said.

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