"Consider COVID-19 As Infectious Disease & Enable LIC Members To Avail Quarantine Leave": Delhi High Court To LIC

The Delhi High Court earlier this week asked the Life Insurance Corporation to consider including COVID-19 as an infectious disease to enable the members of the LIC to avail themselves of the quarantine leave.

The Bench of Justice V. Kameswar Rao was hearing the plea filed by Life Insurance Corporation Employees Union seeking the inclusion of COVID19 disease in the list "Quarantine Leave" admissible under Life Insurance Corporation of India (Staff) Regulations, 1960.

It was submitted by the Counsel for the Union that if a member of the petitioner Union is suffering from COVID-19, he has to take only EL / sick leave / EOL as the case may be.

To this, the Court noted that the issue required consideration of the respondent and thus the petition was disposed of directing the LIC to treat the writ petition as representation and dispose of the same within a period of four weeks and communicate the decision to the petitioner Union.

The petition had been filed by the petitioner with the following prayers:

"In view of the above and in facts and circumstances of the case it is most respectfully prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to:

• Issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to grant quarantine leave/ Special Leave to the members listed before Hon'ble Court in case he/she is not able to attend office due to him/her or family member being Covid-19 positive.
• Issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to credit back the leaves or salary deducted from the account of members of the petitioner union.

In related news, the Karnataka High Court last year directed the state government to consider issuing appropriate directions under the Disaster Management Act, for protecting workmen who are forced to undergo quarantine either by reason of infection of COVID-19 or by reason of being primary contacts to ensure that their absence from work is not be treated as leave, by the employers.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi said :

"If a person working in a private industry becomes a primary contact of an infected person or is infected himself, is it safe for him to report to work? Will it not lead to the spread of Covid-19?. One of the SOP issued states that a primary contact needs to be in-home quarantine for some days so the State executive committee under the Act can issue the directions under the Act."

Case title - LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION EMPLOYEES UNION NZ v REGIONAL MANAGER E AND OS LIC OF INDIA

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