Delhi HC asks Centre if financial benefit under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi can be availed by person without ration card

New Delhi [India], January 4 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Central Government if the financial benefit under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme can be availed by a person who does not have a ration card. The High Court granted time to the Centre to state if the financial benefits under RAN can be extended on the basis of a document other than this one to show the financial status of the family.
The bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh sought the response while hearing a petition by a woman. The petitioner is suffering from Aplastic Anaemia and her request to AIIMS for financial aid under RAN was rejected for want of a ration card.
The counsel for the petitioner informed the court that the petitioner is a resident of Delhi, but does not possess a ration card. It was submitted that the limit set on the number of ration cards by the Central government has been exhausted and the request by the Delhi government to increase it has been declined by the central government.
The Court said, "It is clear that there appears to be an impossibility for the petitioner to submit the ration card to avail of the treatment. It directed the Centre to consider whether there can be some other document that the petitioner can submit to satisfy the condition of establishing that the income level of the entire family is within the limit prescribed under the scheme."
The bench also directed the petitioner to file an affidavit furnishing the detail of her family. The matter has been listed in March for further hearing.
Advocates Ashok Agarwal and Kumar Utkarsh, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that she needs blood and platelet externally and medicines are not working on her. Her life can be saved through Immunomodulation which will cost around Rs 15 lakh.
It is a procedure involving a change in the patient's immune system caused by agents that activate or suppress the body's function.
RAN is a scheme which provides financial assistance to patients below the poverty line and suffering from major life-threatening diseases to get medical treatment at super speciality hospitals and other government hospitals. Under this scheme, a one-time grant for financial assistance to such patients is released to the hospital where the patient is under treatment.
The petitioner's counsel submitted that the mandate under RAN to provide a ration card, besides an income certificate, is "arbitrary, discriminatory, unconstitutional, illegal, irrational, opposed to public policy and contrary to the public interest"
The petition has claimed that because the Centre is "not extending new ration cards beyond the limit of 72,77,995 persons", the petitioner's family could not be issued a new ration card.