A view of Delhi High Court
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Delhi High Court on Monday instituted a case with respect to the grant of financial assistance under the Centre’s Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme, saying the threshold income to claim benefit was prima facie “extremely low”.
“Under the new umbrella scheme of RAN, the threshold of (monthly) income for benefit is ₹1,571 for rural and Rs 1,605 for urban areas. The annual income of applicant is ₹96,000. The court is of prima facie view that the threshold limit is extremely low,” the court observed while issuing notice to the Centre.
A Delhi resident, Suresh Kumar Raghav, sought financial assistance of around ₹9 lakh under the umbrella scheme for kidney transplant for the second time on account of a chronic kidney disease.
The High Court noted that he had earlier received assistance of around ₹6 lakh under RAN for a transplant that failed in April 2023 and he was informed that under the scheme such assistance was given only once, and he did not meet the eligibility criteria.
“Issue notice to Union of India, AIIMS and Suresh Kumar Raghav,” the High Court said while posting the case for further hearing on July 4.
The court appointed lawyer Ankit Jain as the amicus curiae and said the condition that a patient shall be entitled to assistance only once for treatment of kidney transplant was unreasonable.