Supreme Court raps states over delay in disbursal of Covid-19 death claims | Top points

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court pulled up state governments for failing to disburse compensation to the families of Covid-19 victims. The court asked states to intensify their efforts in reaching out to and compensating the families.

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Supreme Court (Photo: File)
Supreme Court (Photo: File)

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court pulled up state governments for failing to disburse compensation to the families of Covid-19 victims in a timely manner. The court asked states to intensify their efforts in reaching out to and compensating the families.

The court was hearing a batch of pleas by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal and intervenors represented by advocate Sumeer Sodhi seeking ex-gratia assistance to family members of Covid-19 victims.

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Last year, the top court had said that the ex-gratia amount of Rs 50,000 must be disbursed to families who lost members to the pandemic within 30 days of the district administration receiving an application for the same.

The matter has now been posted for hearing on February 4, before which the states are expected to file fresh affidavits and provide an update on the situation.

Here are the important updates from the hearing on Wednesday.

COURT ASKS STATE LEGAL SERVICE AUTHORITIES TO PITCH IN

The Supreme Court bench of Justices MR Shah and Sanjiv Khanna asked state legal service authorities to reach out to families who lost their near and dear ones to Covid-19 to facilitate registration and disbursal of claims as it was done post the 2001 Gujarat earthquake.

COURT ASKS STATES TO REACH OUT TO ORPHANS

Noting that it would be very difficult for children orphaned due to Covid-19 to submit applications for compensation, the Supreme Court asked states to take steps to reach out to the children. The court said that in the case of children, the governments hold more responsibility in ensuring they get the compensation and it is not claimed by someone else or rejected.

For the same, the Bal Swaraj portal is to be used, the court said.

USE AADHAAR, SMS TO REACH OUT TO FAMILIES: SC

Observing a trend of low compensation claims against confirmed Covid deaths, especially in states like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand, the Supreme Court asked states to use Aadhaar cards and SMS to reach out to poor and needy families who may not even know about the compensation scheme.

Justice Khanna said, “Aadhaar card is linked to the mobile phone number and the death certificate. When you have the phone number, why not tell the families about the scheme through SMS?”

“Applications received cannot be less than the deaths registered. Do people not know about the scheme? Are people not being able to fill the online application forms? Do we need a paralegal volunteer system?” the Supreme Court bench asked.

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Meanwhile, the Rajasthan government said it has arranged for e-kiosks through which people are being helped with the filing of their compensation applications.

SC SUMMONS AP CHIEF SECRETARY

The Supreme Court summoned the chief secretaries of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar on Wednesday and asked them to explain why disbursals in their states were low.

The court issued a show cause notice to Andhra Pradesh chief secretary and asked why contempt action should not be initiated against him. The chief secretary apologised to the court over the delay in disbursals and said it was partly due to wrong addresses and names being recorded as a result of applications being filed hastily. He asked the court for two weeks to fix it.

The court said applications should not be rejected on technicalities and asked the state to ensure this is not the scenario during the next hearing.

SC REJECTS BIHAR’S COVID TOLL

The top court said it rejects the Covid-19 death toll given by Bihar, and said that these are not actual figures but government figures.

“We are not going to believe that only 12,000 people died in the state of Bihar due to Covid,” the bench told the counsel appearing for the Bihar government.

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The court summoned the chief secretary of Bihar, Amir Subhani, and directed him to intensify efforts to contact the families of those who died due to Covid-19 and compensate them accordingly.

The court also pointed out the ‘mess’ in Gujarat where there are 10,000 recorded deaths but 91,000 compensation claims.

HISTORY OF THE CASE

On December 13 last year, the Supreme Court had slammed states for not giving wide publicity about a portal developed for disbursal of ex-gratia compensation for Covid-19 deaths.

On October 4 last year, the court had said that no state shall deny ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000 to the next of kin of the deceased due to Covid-19 solely on the ground that the death certificate does not mention the virus as the cause of death.

(With inputs from PTI)

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