Allahabad High Court backs Rs 50 lakh Covid aid without RT-PCR report

The Allahabad High Court allowed Archana Singh's petition for Rs 50 lakh in Covid ex gratia assistance. The ruling affirms that verified antigen and hospital records can establish infection without an RT-PCR report.Stock photo used for illustrationPrayagraj,Oct 27, 2026 22:30 ISTThe Allahabad High Court has ruled that a claim for Rs 50 lakh in ex gratia assistance under the Uttar Pradesh government's COVID-19 scheme cannot be rejected merely because a positive RT-PCR report was not submitted, the Press Trust of India reported.The court said records from a government hospital could establish COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death even without a separate copy of the test report.A bench of Justice Prakash Padia and Justice Garima Prashad allowed a petition filed by Archana Singh. It observed: “Where the government hospital's contemporaneous records expressly record a positive antigen result and the respondents accept the infection and cause of death, the absence of a separate copy of the test report cannot be treated as absence of proof of COVID-19.”According to PTI, Singh's husband was a junior engineer at the Obra thermal power project of the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited. He remained on duty during the pandemic and was admitted to a government hospital in Lodhi, Sonbhadra, on April 28, 2021. His hospital records noted a positive antigen result. He died during treatment on May 5, 2021, and the hospital's death form recorded COVID-19 viral pneumonia followed by cardiopulmonary arrest.Following a recommendation from the company's chief general manager and a report by a committee headed by the chief development officer, the district magistrate approved the claim in June 2021. The certificates were later verified as correct. However, the application was rejected on November 16, 2021, because an RT-PCR report had not been submitted on the designated portal. The state's standing counsel told the court that the government order required such a report to be uploaded. As it was unavailable, the claim could not be processed through the portal, PTI reported.In its judgment on Monday, the court said: “In this case, the hospital's own death proforma expressly records COVID-19 viral pneumonia. Cardiopulmonary arrest is recorded as the event that followed it. That entry provides no basis for disregarding COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.”The bench also noted that the government order recognised an RT-PCR, antigen or CT scan report as proof of infection. An RT-PCR report was, therefore, not the only accepted form of evidence.The government scheme provides a one-time payment of Rs 50 lakh to the dependants of personnel who died of COVID-19 while performing duties related to its prevention, protection or treatment. A government order dated July 26, 2021, required a legible copy of the deceased employee's RT-PCR, antigen or CT scan report to be uploaded on the Relief Commissioner's portal.The High Court consequently held that the claim could not be denied solely over the missing RT-PCR report when the hospital records showed a positive antigen result and identified COVID-19 viral pneumonia as the underlying cause of death.- Ends