New
Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Friday gave the government time till September 11 to file
a compliance report on a June 30 order directing it to frame guidelines for
issuing death certificates and paying compensation to the families of those who
have died of COVID-19.
The
court was disinclined to grant the 10 days the government sought.
It
pointed out that a significant period had passed since its last order and said
that unless steps were taken immediately, the third wave too would have passed
and the government would face an even bigger challenge.
“The
order on death certificates, (compensation for) death, etc. was passed long
back. By the time you take further steps, third wave will also be over,” the
court said.
In
June the court ruled that the families of those who died from Covid should get
financial compensation, and gave the NDMA, or National Disaster Management
Authority, six weeks to decide on the amount and frame the required guidelines.
The
court said the central agency was bound to give “minimum standards of relief,
which includes ex-gratia assistance”, but said the actual amount would be left “to
the wisdom of the authority”.
The
court also said death certificates for those who died of COVID-19 must include
date and cause of death (CoD), and also have mechanisms to correct CoD if the
family is not satisfied.
The
government had then argued that as per Section 12 of the Disaster Management
Act, the word “shall” should be construed as “may”, meaning it is not mandatory
to provide compensation.
The
government also said compensation could not be paid as it applied only to
natural disasters, and further that states could not afford ? 4 lakh - the
amount proposed by petitioners - for every family.
“Utilisation
of scarce resources for giving ex-gratia, may have unfortunate consequences of
affecting the pandemic response and health expenditure in other aspects and
hence cause more damage than good,” the government had said.
The
opposition Congress has slammed the centre over this issue, demanding
compensation of ? 10 lakh per family and saying the government had no right to
rule it could not provide this sum.
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