COVID Deaths: SC Allows Centre To Conduct Inquiry Into Fake Claims For Ex Gratia In Four States

The apex court had also expressed concern over fake claims for getting ex gratia compensation of Rs 50,000, saying that it had never visualised that this can be "misused".

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted the Union government to conduct an inquiry into fake claims for ex gratia compensation for kin of those who lost their lives due to COVID-19.

A bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna ruled that the government can verify 5 per cent of claims in four states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, as the gap between number of claims and recorded deaths was wide, news agency PTI reported.

The top court has set a period of 60 days for claims for deaths upto March 28, 2022, and 90 days shall be given to the future claimants, ANI reported.

Earlier, the Centre had filed an application seeking a deadline of four weeks for claiming ex gratia payment from authorities on the death of kin due to COVID-19.

The apex court had previously expressed concern over fake claims for getting ex gratia compensation of Rs 50,000, saying that it had never visualised that this can be "misused" or thought that the morality has not gone so down.

SC had also directed all state governments and Union Territories to appoint a dedicated nodal officer to coordinate with the member secretary of the state legal service authority (SLSA) to facilitate the payment of ex gratia compensation.

Earlier, the top court had pulled up the state governments over the non-disbursal of the Rs 50,000 ex gratia.

Notably, on October 4 last year, it had stated that no state shall deny ex gratia of Rs 50,000 to the next of kin of those who died after being infected with COVID-19 solely on the grounds that the death certificate does not mention the virus as the cause of death.

According to the SC ruling, the ex gratia is to be disbursed within 30 days from the date of applying to the district disaster management authority or the district administration concerned along with the proof of the death of the deceased due to coronavirus and the cause of death being certified as died due to COVID-19.

It had stressed that the directions for payment of compensation to the family members of the persons who died due to COVID-19 are very clear, adding that there was no requirement at all of constituting the scrutiny committee to award compensation.

As per the order, it was made clear that even in a case wherein the death certificate the cause is not shown as COVID-19 but if found the deceased was declared positive for coronavirus and has died within 30 days, automatically his or her family members are entitled to the compensation without any further conditions.

(With Agency Inputs)