The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed the outer limits to apply for COVID-19 death compensation at 60 days for deaths that occurred prior to March 20, 2022 and 90 days in case of future deaths.
The States have to process the applications and make the actual payment of ₹ 50,000 for each death within 30 days of the date of receipt of a claim.
“If no outer limit of time is fixed, there is a greater possibility of making false claims,” a Bench of Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna reasoned.
The States have received approximately 7,38,610 applications for ex-gratia compensation for the death of their loved ones.
Random scrutiny
Taking into consideration the possibility of fake claims, the Bench ordered the Centre through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Disaster Management Authority to carry out a random scrutiny of 5% of the claim applications made in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra at the first instance. The four States have to cooperate with the scrutiny.
The court agreed with the Centre that the pandemic has subsided and it had been nine months since the court endorsed the payment of ex gratia aid in a judgment on June 30 last year.
“This court passed the order directing the Union of India/NDMA/concerned States to pay ex gratia amount keeping in mind the humanity and keeping in mind the sufferings of the family members who lost one of their family members due to COVID-19. Therefore, nobody can be permitted to misuse the same and it is also against morality, and is unethical, which can never be accepted,” the court underscored.
It said that all the genuine claimants, more or less, would have applied for financial aid by now. “The process of receiving the claims would go on endlessly... There is a possibility of false claims,” it noted.
Time for families
However, it disagreed with the Centre’s submission that it was enough to give families of those who died another four weeks before closing the window for receiving claims. “The families would need some reasonable time to recover from the death and sorrow and filing the claim,” the court said in a seven-page order.
The court also did not make the outer limits inflexible. Instead, it stated that if any family could not apply within the outer limits in case of “extreme hardship”, they could approach the Grievance Redressal Committee with their claims. The panel would consider these claims on a case-to-case basis.
Ordering the random scrutiny, the Bench said the Centre should complete the exercise in three months and submit a report before it.
If anybody is found to have made a fake claim for financial aid, he or she would face legal action under Section 52 of the Disaster Management Act of 2005. The provision prescribes imprisonment for a term extending to two years and fine.
