HC censures Chandigarh for denying medical reimbursement to former CTU staffer’s widow

Coming down heavily against the UT administration for denying medical reimbursement to the widow of a former Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) employee, the Punjab and Haryana high court termed the UT’s approach “inhumane” and imposed a fine on it.
“The petitioners have acted mechanically to deny what was rightfully due to be paid to the respondent. The petitioners’ approach is found to be inhuman. It has forced a widow to seek redressal of her rightful claim through institution of legal proceedings,” the bench of justice Deepak Sibal and justice Deepak Manchanda observed, imposing a fine of ₹10,000 on the administration.
The observations were made while dismissing the UT administration’s plea against an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which was approached by a widow challenging denial of medical reimbursement. The tribunal had, on August 25, 2023, found the woman’s claim genuine and directed the UT to settle the medical claim within two months.
The petitioner, Sudershan Kaur, is the widow of Karam Singh, who retired on January 31, 2003, as inspector from CTU. She was diagnosed with cancer following which she underwent treatment at Sri Guru Ram Das Cancer Hospital, Amritsar, from May 6, 2019, to August 7, 2019.
In November 2019, she applied for a medical reimbursement of ₹3.24 lakh. Her claim was returned in December 2019 and resubmitted in 2020 but the reimbursement was not provided.
The UT had argued in the high court that it denied the reimbursement claims as the certificate from the hospital where the victim underwent treatment was not attached with the claim.
The court observed that the UT administration has not disputed the claim that the woman underwent treatment at the Amritsar hospital and at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. The veracity of the certificates or bills issued by both hospitals is also not doubted
The bench dismissed the plea observing that the tribunal is found to have committed no error and referred to a Supreme Court judgement which said, “… the government employee during his lifetime or after his retirement is entitled to get the benefit of medical facilities and no fetters can be placed on his rights.”