IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH

263 CWP-12446-2024 Date of Decision: October 29, 2025 Premo Devi ....Petitioner VERSUS State of Haryana and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HARPREET SINGH BRAR Present : Mr. Vipin Kumar, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Arun Singla, AAG, Haryana.

Mr. Rajvir Singh Sihag, Advocate for respondent No.2.

HARPREET SINGH BRAR, J. (Oral)

1. The present petition has been filed under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of a writ, order or directions in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to consider the claim of the petitioner under the Special ex-gratia grant/Special Compassionate Financial Assistance notified by Government of Haryana on 08.06.2021 (Annexure P-2) as her husband died on COVID duty and further, to release the amount as notified in a time bound manner.

2. On 25.10.2024, the following order was passed:-

“Learned State Counsel as well as learned counsel appearing on behalf of respondent-Bank on instructions stated that an amount of Rs.5,00,000/- will be given to the petitioner by the respondent-Bank within a period of one week from today.”

3. On the next date of hearing i.e. 22.11.2024, this Court was informed that an amount of Rs.5,00,000/- has been paid to the petitioner while payment with respect to the remaining amount is still pending.

4. Learned State counsel submits that certain necessary documents have not been supplied by respondent No.2-Bank to the competent authority. 5. Learned counsel for the petitioner as well as learned counsel for respondent No.2-Bank submit that the stand taken by the learned State counsel is contrary to the record. They refer to Annexures P-6, P-8 and P-12 and state that all the relevant documents with regard to the husband of the petitioner being a Corona warrior, who died due to COVID-19 while performing his duties during the pandemic. As such, the petitioner is entitled to the ex-gratia amount of Rs.20 lakhs in terms of Clause 2(1) of the Notification dated 08.06.2021. A perusal of the short reply dated 18.07.2024 filed by the respondent No.3-Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Haryana clearly indicates that respondent No.2-Bank forwarded the case of the petitioner for consideration for grant of ex-gratia grant/Special Compassionate Financial Assistance vide letter dated 29.03.2022. Further, on 22.04.2022, respondent No.2-Bank was directed to submit all requisite documents to fulfil the mandatory conditions as per the notification dated 08.06.2021. A clarification was also sought from respondent No.2-Bank with regard to cause of death of the husband of petitioner. In para 4 of the reply filed on behalf of respondent No.3, it has been categorically mentioned that respondent No.2-Bank sent a detailed death summary received from the hospital and the RT-PCR Test report issued by Government Civil Hospital, Sector-6, Panchkula along with other documents. On consideration of documents submitted by the Bank, respondent No.3 recommended the case to the Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Haryana, Cooperation Department with request to forward the same to Haryana Bureau of Public Enterprises ( hereinafter referred as ‘HBPE’) for necessary approval.

6. On 19.03.2023, another hyper-technical objection was raised and the application along with record was returned for getting it signed from the Head of Department. Accordingly, the respondent-Managing Director signed the same and forwarded it again to the competent authority. It has been clearly mentioned that after due examination of the case of the petitioner, the Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Haryana, Cooperation Department sent the same to HBPE for necessary approval. However, a query was raised by HBPE vide email dated 23.11.2023, asking respondent No.2-Bank to certify that the husband of petitioner was a corona warrior.

7. In response to the same, vide letter dated 20.12.2023, respondent No.2-Bank clarified that the husban