SC reserves order on Covid death compensation

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its orders in the application filed by the Central government seeking a time limit for submitting claims for ex-gratia payment from authorities on the death of kin due to Covid-19 and also seeking measures to monitor fake claims.

A bench of Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna indicated that it would set a time limit for 60 days from now for past deaths and 90 days for the future claimants to claim Rs 50,000 ex gratia compensation. The bench said that a deadline of four weeks, as suggested by the Centre for claiming ex gratia payment, may not be sufficient as the families of the deceased would be distressed due to the loss of family members.

“Four weeks may not be an appropriate time period, as the family concerned may be in shock and four weeks may not be a good time. If there is a death, then the family would need time to recover from the sorrow and then file claims,” the bench observed. As for the fake claims, the bench indicated that it might ask the National Disaster Management Authority to conduct a random survey of 5% of the claims in four states which had a wide difference between number of claims and recorded deaths—Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kerala.