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SC gives govt till Sept 11 for guidelines on issuing Covid death certificates
The court issued above directions in its June 30 order entitling persons who died of Covid-19 to an ex-gratia amount under the Disaster Management Act 2005. The court had granted Centre six weeks then to fix the amount of ex-gratia. This period was further extended by two weeks on August 16
The Supreme Court on Friday gave Centre till September 11 to report compliance on issuance of certificates for Covid deaths and framing of a national insurance scheme for disaster-related deaths.
The court had issued above directions in its June 30 order entitling persons who died of Covid-19 to an ex-gratia amount under the Disaster Management Act 2005. The court had granted Centre six weeks then to fix the amount of ex-gratia. This period was further extended by four weeks on August 16.
Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had sought another week to file the government’s response. The bench of justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose said, “By the time you will take steps, even the third wave (of Covid-19 pandemic) will be over. Our orders directing correction of death certificates was passed long back. You had agreed to file a response on our directions by today. We will now grant you a last opportunity.”
The court asked for the affidavit to be filed by September 11 and posted the matter for hearing on September 13.
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Advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, who filed the public interest litigation (PIL) resulting in the June 30 order, said, “It is unfortunate that the Centre is delaying compliance,” Bansal said.
An intervention application filed by persons seeking benefit of ex-gratia payment for Covid deaths informed the court that the last date for framing the ex-gratia scheme was September 8. The bench said, “As regards ex-gratia, we extended time on the last occasion. It is up to the Centre to comply with our orders.”
The June 30 judgment held that the kin of persons who died due to Covid will be entitled for ex-gratia compensation under Section 12(iii) of the DMA 2005 since Covid-19 was declared a notified disaster under the 2005 Act. Although persons killed in a notified disaster are entitled to a sum of ₹4 lakh as ex-gratia, according to a letter of April 8, 2015 issued by the Ministry of home affairs, the court did not fix the quantum of compensation but left it to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to consider the same.
Two major directions by the court included issuance of simplified guidelines for certificate stating the exact cause of death as “Death due to Covid-19”. Such guidelines, according to the court, were to also consider persons who died within two to three months of being found Covid-positive. The court also directed the Centre to provide a mechanism for the families of those whose death certificates had already been issued to get the same corrected.
The court also directed the Centre to take appropriate steps in line with the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission providing for a National Insurance Scheme for disaster-related deaths. As per the finance commission, such a scheme could work as a Social Protection Scheme without increasing the financial burden on the government.
