India, Sept. 6 -- The Delhi High Court has directed the city government to pay Rs.1 crore as ex gratia compensation within eight weeks to the widow of a school principal who died while overseeing Covid-19 vaccination work.

A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Tushar Rao Gedela, in the verdict delivered on Thursday, stressed that the government's compensation policy was a welfare-oriented measure for families of those who lost their lives while performing essential pandemic services.

The ruling came on the woman's appeal against a November 2024 single-judge order that denied her compensation, holding that her husband was not on Covid duty when he contracted the virus.

Her husband, principal of MCD Primary Boys' School, Nitha...