Lifetime medicare for ECHS members’ disabled kin: HC

CHANDIGARH: In a relief to members of the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) whose children are suffering from life-threatening disabilities, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has struck down the change in policy that had denied healthcare to such affected patients.

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 2

In a relief to members of the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) whose children are suffering from life-threatening disabilities, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has struck down the change in policy that had denied healthcare to such affected patients.

When the ECHS was introduced in 2002, healthcare benefits were provided for dependent children of ex-servicemen till the age of 25 years. The age limit was not applicable to physically or mentally disabled children who were unable to earn livelihood and such dependants were granted lifetime healthcare entitlement.

However, the facilities were withdrawn from such dependents abruptly in 2017 on the grounds that under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) applicable to civilians, it had been clarified that such benefits would only be granted to those suffering from disabilities such as blindness and locomotor disabilities as mentioned in Section 2 of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.

Based on the aforementioned directives, healthcare was withdrawn from Hartegh Singh and Satendar Kumar Chauhan, the petitioners in the case who were undergoing regular dialysis for renal failure and they were asked to surrender their ECHS dependant cards.

Challenging the directives in court, they contended that once they had been granted facilities “for life”, those could not be withdrawn by way of retrospective operation of a new policy. They also argued that the Persons with Disabilities Act and ECHS operated in different fields since the intention of ECHS was to provide healthcare to contributing members while that of the Act was to provide equal opportunities to disabled persons in employment, education, access to public spaces etc and the action or withdrawing their benefits did not have any link with the objective sought to be achieved.

Observing that “the respondents have attempted to tacitly extinguish the rights of the petitioners in a retrospective manner and that too through an administrative action, which is clearly impermissible in law”, Justice Jaspal Singh has directed the continuance of medical facilities to the affected children. “The law cannot be changed retrospectively other than by legislative action and even if the legislature has power to legislate retrospective laws, the same cannot take away accrued rights,” the court ruled.