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Supreme Court greenlights centre's probe into 'fake' Covid compensation claims
The four states- Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kerala are said to have a big difference between claims and recorded deaths.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the central government to probe 'fake ex-gratia claims' about the death of family members due to Covid-19, news agency ANI reported.
Responding to the centre's plea seeking a sample survey for verification of fake claims, the top court said the centre could verify five per cent of claims in four states with high suspected fake claims. The four states are Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kerala, each of which is said to have a big difference between claims and recorded deaths.
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The Supreme Court has also set a 60-day deadline for claims for deaths upto March 28, and 90 days for future claimants to claim ₹50,000 ex-gratia compensation.
The central government pleaded on Saturday that the Supreme Court should order an investigation into ‘illegal rackets’ that are ‘possibly running in cahoots with public officials’ to illicitly collect ₹50,000 compensation for deaths that may not be due to Covid-19.
During the last hearing, on March 14, the bench observed that an enquiry by the Comptroller and Auditor General may be necessary to probe the possible misuse.
“We never visualised that our order could be misused,” the bench lamented while allowing the central government to move an application for a probe into the illegal claims.
On October 4 last year, the court quantified the compensation at ₹50,000 to be paid by the state disaster response funds. It further said that no state shall deny ex-gratia of ₹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.
India has recorded over 5.16 Lakh Covid-linked deaths since the beginning of the pandemic as per the health ministry data. Of this, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kerala (four states with high ‘fake’ claims) together account for over 2.36 lakh deaths alone.
