Bombay HC directs MSRTC to pay Rs 50 lakh to widow of employee who died of Covid-19 while on duty

NEW DELHI: The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) to wage Rs 50 lakh compensation to the widow of an worker who died owed to Covid-19 successful April 2021.A seat of justices Makarand Karnik and Shriram Modak, successful an bid dated February 24, said the widow, Sunita Bapu Jagtap, was entitled to compensation. Sunita Jagtap had challenged MSRTC’s decisions of January 2022 and March 2023, rejecting her claim. The corp had said her husband, Bapu Jagtap, was not assigned indispensable services and was not a operator progressive successful interstate transport.The High Court said MSRTC had taken a constrictive view. It noted the hard concern during the Covid period, erstwhile radical were acrophobic to measurement retired for work.

The tribunal said the deceased could person contracted the microorganism portion performing his duty.The tribunal observed that nationalist beingness had travel to a standstill during the pandemic, but constricted nationalist services, including transport, continued.“It was portion of the work of the hubby of the petitioner to be the job, which helium had done astatine the hazard of his life,” the seat said.The tribunal held that MSRTC cannot debar its work and directed it to wage Rs 50 lakh to the petitioner.Bapu Jagtap was posted astatine the BEST autobus depot successful Wadala, wherever helium supervised postulation from March 24 to March 28, 2021.