Thursday, 01 July 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
Centre directed to fix minimum amount of relief
Finally, there is some relief for the families of Covid-19 victims. The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Government’s arguments against providing ex-gratia and directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to frame guidelines for offering financial help to the families of those who lost their lives to Covid-19. However, the court left it to the NDMA to fix a minimum compensation amount.
A bench of justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah said the court cannot direct the Centre to fix a particular amount of financial help, but the Government can fix the minimum standard of amount to be paid as ex-gratia to family members of those who lost their lives due to Covid-19, while keeping various aspects in mind.
The bench said the Government can fix a reasonable amount while keeping in mind the funds and resources available with the country. The apex court directed the Centre and the NDMA to issue fresh guidelines within six weeks for minimum standard of relief to be granted to families of victims of Covid-19.
It also directed the authorities to issue guidelines for simplifying the process of issuing death certificates for Covid-19 fatalities. As on date, as many as 3.98 lakh succumbed to Covid-19 as per records.
The court asked the Centre to consider formulating an insurance scheme for cremation workers as proposed by the Finance Commission. The bench also rejected the argument of the Centre for reading “shall” as “may” in section 12 of the Disaster Management Act for grant of ex-gratia amount to victims of disaster, and said that the NDMA has failed to perform its statutory duties.
The top court’s verdict came on two separate pleas filed by lawyers Reepak Kansal and Gaurav Kumar Bansal seeking directions to the Centre and the States to provide Rs 4 lakh compensation to the families of coronavirus victims as provisioned under the Act. On June 21, the top court had reserved its verdict on the batch of pleas which also sought formulation of a uniform policy for the issue of death certificates.
The Centre has told the top court that though there was no issue of “fiscal affordability” with it, ex-gratia compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the families of those who have died of Covid cannot be paid keeping in mind the “rational, judicious and optimum usage of resources of the nation”.
In its additional affidavit, the Government has termed Covid as “once in a lifetime pandemic inflicted on the entire world” and said that various steps to strategise the nation’s response to the pandemic have been taken and not just the funds of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), but even the funds of Consolidated Fund of India are being utilised according to advice of experts.
The top court had said that the Finance Commission’s recommendations on dealing with disasters cannot override the statutory schemes on compensation under section 12 of the DMA. The apex court rejected Government’s arguments that it had already extended for one more year, starting from April 2021, the benefit of the “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Insurance Scheme” of Rs 50 lakh to about 22 lakh healthcare professionals.
The Government also argued that the guidelines, meant for 2015 to 2020, recommended expenditure for providing financial relief against 12 specific identified disasters on the national level that is “cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, pest-attack, frost and cold wave” and the COVID-19 was not included. At one point during the argument, the bench asked whether the cancellation of ex-gratia specified in the Disaster Management Act approved by NDMA chaired by Prime Minister.
