Ensure kin of Covid-19 deceased get documents to avail relief: HC to TN govt

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu government to ensure that family members and legal heirs of the deceased are issued either a death certificate or an additional document indicating that the cause of death is Covid-19

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu government to ensure that family members and legal heirs of the deceased are issued either a death certificate or an additional document indicating that the cause of death is Covid-19. This would help the families to avail Covid-19 death related compensations provided by the state for their kin, the court observed.

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The first bench comprising the Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy was hearing a plea moved by HA Shrirajalakshmi. The petitioner sought for the court to direct the authorities concerned to provide the reason of death as Covid-19 in the certificates issued by the state to claim compensation.

During the hearing on Thursday, the counsel for the central government informed the bench that the state government has been informed on the recent judgement of the Supreme Court that insisted for Covid-19 death to be noted specifically in the death certificates of the people who died due to the viral infection.

During a previous hearing, the bench had stated that across the country, there are grievances that all the deaths that have been caused by the pandemic may not have been appropriately recorded and sought responses from the Tamil Nadu and Union governments on the matter.

The court adjourned the plea by another 10 weeks for the state government to file a detailed report on the issues raised by the petitioner.