Recently, the Supreme Court told the state governments to reach out to the families who lost their loved ones to Covid-19, and emphasized, the governments should not wait for them to file applications to claim compensation. The court was hearing a batch of pleas by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal and intervenors, represented by advocate Sumeer Sodhi, seeking ex-gratia assistance to family members of COVID-19 victims.
No wide publicity of the portal given: On December 13 last year, the Supreme Court had criticized states for not giving wide publicity about a portal developed for disbursal of ex-gratia compensation for Covid-19 deaths.
Compenstion alloted: On October 4 last year, the court had said that no state shall deny ex-gratia compensation of Rs 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.
Telangana: In Telangana, there are only 3,993 deaths recorded and it has received applications for claims 28,969, while Kerala has 49,300 recorded deaths due to COVID but applications for the claim were just 27,274.
Maharastra: The Maharashtra government in its latest figures has said that out of the 1,41,885 deaths recorded due to COVID, it has received 2,17,151 claims applications out of which it has paid 1,00,271 and 49,000 applications have been rejected.
Gujarat: Similarly, the Gujarat government has 10,094 recorded deaths and as per updated figures it has received 91, 810 applications for a claim out of which 59,885 have been paid around 5,000 have been rejected and 15,000 are under examination of being processed.
Bihar: The top court said it rejects the Covid-19 death toll given by Bihar and said that these are not actual figures but government figures.
Children who have lost both parents: The court directs the states to reach out to those children who have lost both their parents so that the amount of compensation can be paid to them.
State should share full information in ten days of death toll: The court had directed the states to share the full information/particulars within ten days about the number of deaths recorded by the concerned States and about payment of compensation to State Legal Services Authorities.
Technical ground not criteria for rejection of application: The bench observed that no claim shall be rejected on technical grounds and if there is any defect in the claim application, an opportunity should be given to the concerned Claimant to rectify the mistake so that the concerned person may be paid the compensation.
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