COVID-19: PIL seeks Rs 1 cr ex-gratia relief to kin of deceased judicial members
May 08, 2021
New Delhi [India], May 8 : A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking direction to respondents to hold late K Venugopal, Family Judge, Saket District Court and late Kamran Khan, MM, Dwarka District Court, Delhi, who recently lost their lives while performing their duties as frontline warriors and to pay an amount of Rs 1 crore each to the kith and kin of the deceased judicial members as an ex-gratia relief.
The petition also seeks direction to Delhi Government and it's various department to pay appropriate ex-gratia relief to kith and kin of not less than Rs 50 lakhs per to officer/employee/court staff and further direct the respondents to provide employment to the next of the deceased on compassionate grounds.
The petitioner, Tanveer Ahmad Mir, practising lawyer also seeks direction to the office of Registrar General of Delhi High Court to immediately collate and place on record the details of the members of other lower judiciary court staff, the court staff of the Delhi High Court who unfortunately may have lost their lives due to COVID-19 while performing their duties and in such cases.
"A considerable number of officers of the lower judiciary, court staff and Registry officials at the moment are further undergoing a harrowing experience of not only being unable to meet the medical expenses of the treatment of their near and dear ones as well as family members but also a number of officers and their immediate relatives most unfortunately have lost their lives as well," read the plea.
It also added that right from April 2020 onwards the subordinate judiciary and the court staff at the risk of their very lives, the livelihood of their family members came down to the court premises, organised the filings and achieved the target of complete coordination between the general public at large, the lawyers community as well as the judicial community.
"During this period of time a number of court staff members belonging to the lower judiciary as well as judicial officers got infected but nevertheless attended the court hearings,facilitated the same for the benefit of general public at large," the plea further said.
The petition is scheduled to be heard on Monday by the bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh.
