Justice Sudeepti Sharma, delivering the judgment on January 28, dismissed the regular second appeal filed by the State of Punjab and upheld a 2006 order of the district judge, Mansa, which had allowed Bhupinder Singh’s claim for reimbursement. (Express Photo)The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a state government appeal, ending a 19-year legal battle over medical reimbursement and upholding the full claim of a government school teacher who underwent emergency heart surgery in 2002. Justice Sudeepti Sharma, delivering the judgment on January 28, dismissed the regular second appeal filed by the State of Punjab and upheld a 2006 order of the district judge, Mansa, which had allowed Bhupinder Singh’s claim for reimbursement. Singh, then a teacher at Government Elementary School, Phus Mandi, Mansa, had undergone coronary artery bypass surgery at Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre in New Delhi in November 2002. He incurred expenses of Rs 2,20,677 and Rs 11,000 during his admission from November 18 to 30 that year.