HC: Issue separate certificate on cause of death in Covid-19 cases

HC: Issue separate certificate on cause of death in Covid-19 cases

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 09.07.2021

The Madras high court on Thursday directed the state government to take immediate steps to issue a separate certificate to the families of all eligible Covid-19 victims mentioning the cause of death to help them claim relief, if any, provided by the government.

This shall be in addition to the death certificate issued by the authorities now, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said.

Presently, death certificates issued by civic bodies do not mention the cause of death.

The court issued the direction on a public interest writ petition that sought a direction to the government to frame and implement an effective policy to ensure that the cause of death is properly and correctly mentioned in the relevant certificate/official document for all cases of Covid-related deaths in accordance with law.

HC: Records would help future studies

On June 11, the court emphasised the need for accurate reporting of Covid-19 deaths in Tamil Nadu, and observed that due to the current policy followed in declaring a Covid-19 death, in some cases, families of the deceased are denied state compensation.

“It is necessary that an appropriate study be conducted by a specialised team, if necessary. It would also be fit and proper to require death certificates already issued to be revised, if necessary; if only not to deny the relief due to the family of the deceased in terms of the several schemes announced by the central and the state governments,” the court had said.

Accurate reporting or recording of deaths would help in studies being undertaken to deal with a pandemic of this nature in future, the court added.