Can benefit under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi be extended without ration card? Delhi High Court asks Centre

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted time to the Centre to state if the financial benefits under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) can be extended to a person on the basis of a document other than the ration card to show the financial status of the family.

Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the order while hearing a petition by a woman suffering from Aplastic Anaemia, whose request to AIIMS for financial aid under the scheme was rejected on account of non-availability of a ration card.

The court was informed that despite being a resident of the national capital, the petitioner does not possess a ration card as the limit set on the number of ration cards by the Centre has been exhausted and the Delhi government's request to increase the threshold has been turned down by the central government.

"It is clear that there appears to be an impossibility for the petitioner to submit the ration card to avail the treatment. Under such circumstances, the court directs the Union of India to consider as to whether there can be some other document that can be submitted by petitioner to satisfy the condition of establishing that the income level of the entire family is within the limit prescribed under the scheme," said the court.

The court also asked the petitioner to file an affidavit disclosing the details of her family and listed the matter for further hearing in March.

RAN provides financial assistance to patients living below poverty line who are suffering from major life threatening diseases to help them receive medical treatment at super speciality hospitals and other government hospitals. The financial assistance to such patients is given in the form of a 'one-time grant' which is released to the hospital concerned.

The petitioner, represented by advocates Ashok Agarwal and Kumar Utkarsh, has submitted that she needs blood and platelet from outside, and since no medicine is working on her, the only way to save her life is through Immunomodulation which will cost around Rs 15 lakh.

Immunomodulation involves a change in the body's immune system caused by agents that activate or suppress its function.

The petitioner has said the mandate under RAN to provide a ration card, besides an income certificate, when one of the documents is sufficient to prove the financial status, is "arbitrary, discriminatory, unconstitutional, illegal, irrational, having no nexus with the object underlying therein, opposed to public policy and contrary to public interest".

The plea has claimed that on account of the Centre "not extending new ration cards beyond the limit of 72,77,995 persons", the petitioner's family could not be issued a new ration card for no fault of their own.

"It is also to mention here that respondent Government of NCT of Delhi had requested respondent Union of India to increase the threshold limit of Ration Card beneficiaries but the same was consequently denied. Due to this issue petitioner could not be issued a new Ration Card resulting in non-acceptance of application under RAN Scheme for grant of aid for treatment at AIIMS," the petition said.

While issuing notice on the petition, the high court had orally observed in August last year that without a ration card, the petitioner would not get the benefit under RAN, which would defeat the scheme itself.