New Delhi, Oct. 29 -- Warning that the country may not forgive the Supreme Court if it fails to stand by doctors who laid down their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, a bench led by justice PS Narasimha on Tuesday underlined that even private practitioners who kept their clinics open during the pandemic and succumbed to the disease should be entitled to the Rs.50-lakh compensation under the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) insurance scheme.

The bench, also comprising justice R Mahadevan, found fault with the Union government's insistence that the benefit was confined to doctors formally requisitioned by state or central authorities. The scheme, introduced on March 28, 2020, under the National Disaster Response Fund ...