Consider plea to enhance limit to avail medical scheme, Madras HC tells govt

''Since this is a matter of policy, it is left to the state to consider whether the upward revision of the minimum threshold limit would be appropriate,'' the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said on Monday. 

The plea appears to be reasonable, the bench said and hoped that the threshold of Rs 72,000 per year would be substantially increased to allow a larger number of families to avail of the benefit under the scheme. 

The bench was disposing of a PIL from one D I Nathan praying for a direction to the state government to devise a scheme to bring all private nursing homes, polyclinics and hospitals under their control, admit and provide free treatment effectively to the coronavirus affected people under the scheme. 

The petitioner contended that the ceiling of Rs 72,000 per annum is too low since even on the basis of the minimum wages payable to an unskilled worker, the annual income of his family will exceed the minimum eligibility threshold. 

So he pleaded for a direction to raise the ceiling, so that the scheme can cover a larger number of persons.