 "Law, Law and Order, Justice, Punishment")
The Delhi High Court has held that a circular issued by the Delhi government during the Covid-19 pandemic to regulate hospital charges cannot be interpreted as limiting the contractual obligations of insurance companies towards their policyholders.
Justice Sachin Datta directed United India Insurance Company Limited to release the balance amount to petitioner Reena Goel, whose Covid-19 hospitalisation claim was only partly reimbursed despite being within the insured coverage.
The non-release of the deficit amount is clearly unjustified and contrary to the clarification/s issued by Irdai, the court noted.
Circular aimed at capping hospital fees
The court observed that the Delhi government’s June 20, 2020, circular was intended to regulate the fees hospitals charged patients for Covid-19 treatment, not to reduce the reimbursement payable under insurance policies.
Also Read
 "Covid, coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2")
 "Justinian plague, ancient DNA, Yersinia pestis, first pandemic")
 "covid masks")
 "Robert F Kennedy Jr, Robert F")
 "The Wisdom of Plagues: Lessons From 25 Years of Covering Pandemics")
This position, the court emphasised, had already been clarified by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) through circulars issued in January and April 2021.
Insurer told to settle dues in four weeks
Goel was admitted between December 4 and December 18, 2020, and incurred expenses of ₹356,295. She was covered under a ₹3 lakh base policy and an additional ₹3 lakh “Super Top Up Medicare Policy”. However, the insurer reimbursed only ₹175,340, citing the Delhi government’s circular.
Finding the insurer’s reliance on the circular unjustified, the court held that the deficit payment was contrary to Irdai’s clarifications and inconsistent with the insurer’s conduct in similar cases. It directed United India Insurance to settle the balance claim within four weeks.
The petitioner was represented by advocates Rakshita Goyal, Sanyam Gupta, Aditya Goel, Anju Bhushan Gupta, and Ankita Chaudhary. On behalf of Irdai (respondent no. 2), appearances were made by Abhishek Nanda, Hrishika Rawat, and Sourabh Singh.
(With inputs from ANI)
 "Nirmala Sitharaman, Nirmala")
 "Maharashtra Flood")
 "Amrit Bharat Express, Amrit Bharat")
 "union electronics and information technology minister ashwini vaishnaw said the government was also planning to share the gpu compute capacity with some countries of the global south")
 "Hooghly river, boat")
