New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday gave the govt time till 9/11 to file a compliance report on a June 30 order directing it to border guidelines for issuing death certificates and paying compensation to the families of these who have died of COVID-19 The court was disinclined to grant the ten days the govt sought It acknowledged that a big period had passed since its last order and said that unless steps were taken immediately, the third wave too would have passed and therefore the government would face a good bigger challenge.
“The order on death certificates, (compensation for) death, etc. was passed long back. By the time you’re taking further steps, third wave also will be over,” the court said In June the court ruled that the families of these who died from Covid should get financial compensation, and gave the NDMA, or National Disaster Management Authority, six weeks to make a decision on the quantity and frame the specified guidelines.
The court said the central agency was sure to give “minimum standards of relief, which incorporates ex-gratia assistance”, but said the particular amount would be left “to the wisdom of the authority” The court also said death certificates for those that died of COVID-19 must include date and explanation for death (CoD), and even have mechanisms to correct CoD if the family isn’t satisfied.
The government had then argued that as per Section 12 of the Disaster Management Act, the word “shall” should be construed as “may”, meaning it’s not mandatory to supply compensation The government also said compensation couldn’t be paid because it applied only to natural disasters, and further that states couldn’t afford ₹ 4 lakh – the quantity proposed by petitioners – for each family.
“Utilisation of scarce resources for giving ex-gratia, may have unfortunate consequences of affecting the pandemic response and health expenditure in other aspects and hence cause more damage than good,” the govt had said The opposition Congress has slammed the centre over this issue, demanding compensation of ₹ 10 lakh per family and saying the govt had no right to rule it couldn’t provide this sum.
