Supreme Court allows Centre to scrutinise fake Covid ex gratia claims

New Delhi, March 24

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Centre to inquire into fake claims for ex gratia compensation meant for families of Covid victims in Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, saying “nobody can be permitted to avail the compensation by submitting a false death certificate”.

Punishable under Disaster Mgmt Act

If it is found that anybody has made a fake claim, it shall be considered under Section 52 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and punished accordingly. Supreme Court

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“We permit the National Disaster Management Authority/Union of India, through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to carry out the random scrutiny of five per cent of the claim applications by the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra at the first instance,” a Bench led by Justice MR Shah said.

The government can verify five per cent of claims in the four states, where the gap between the number of claims and recorded deaths was wide, the Bench said, adding if it was found that anybody had made a fake claim, it shall be considered under Section 52 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and punished accordingly.

It set a 60-day deadline for all persons eligible as on date to apply for the ex gratia compensation and 90 days for future claimants. The earlier order to process the claims and to make the actual payment of compensation in 30 days from the date of receipt of claim shall continue, it added.

It ordered the states concerned to publicise its order fortnightly for six weeks through print and electronic media so that the claimants could know the time limit fixed by the court for making claims.

Acting on PILs seeking an ex gratia payment of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of Covid victims, the Bench had on June 30 last year directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to frame guidelines for it, saying the authority was statutorily mandated to provide minimum relief, including ex-gratia to the victims of the pandemic.

On October 4, 2021, it had said states could not deny the ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000 to the next of kin of those who died due to Covid solely on the ground that the death certificate didn’t mention the virus as the cause of death.

“We never imagined that this can be misused. This is a very pious work and we thought that our morality has not gone so down,” the Bench had said on March 14.