SC to govt: Pay ex gratia to all who lost loved ones

SC to govt: Pay ex gratia to all who lost loved ones

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 16.12.2021

As the number of applications seeking Covid death compensation has exceeded the official toll due to the disease in some states, the Centre on Wednesday clarified before the Supreme Court that this is not due to under-reporting of deaths but because the criteria for the classification of such fatalities have been widened by the court.

At the outset of the hearing, additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati raised the issue of alleged media misreporting, but a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna asked the Centre not to pay much attention to media reports and focus on ensuring that the Rs 50,000 ex-gratia is disbursed to all those who lost their loved ones to Covid.

“There may or may not be under-reporting of deaths. We are not here to say that. But 10,000 deaths, but a much larger number of applications submitted, so a common man may think so... But our anxiety is that people should get relief and government should work in that direction,” the bench said.

The court said that as a welfare state it would be better if more and more people approached the government to claim the relief. The court directed all states to give wide publicity through print and electronic media, particularly in vernacular newspapers, to make people aware on how and where to approach to make a Covid ex-gratia claim. It expressed satisfaction at the Gujarat government’s decision to publish advertisements in newspaper and said that other states also should also use same format. The Gujarat government in its fresh affidavit told the court that it has received a total of 40,467 applications so far, of which 26,836 applications have been approved and 23,848 families have been paid compensation.

The court, however, pulled up Maharashtra government for not being prompt in disbursing the amount after the court was informed that only 1,000-odd families had been granted relief.