Supreme Court directs Central Govt. to issue guidelines for ex gratia amount payable to family of persons who succumbed to COVID-19
The Central Govt. had announced ex gratia monetary compensation of Rs. 4 lacs to the families of the deceased who have succumbed to the pandemic of Covid-19, in view of Section 12 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. However, subsequently on 20th June, 2021 the Central Govt. informed the court that they would be withdrawing the relief stating that they would not be able to pay each family the amount of 4 lakh owing to financial constraints.
However, the Supreme Court, on 30th June, 2021, passed a judgment stating that a minimum standard of relief is required to be provided to persons affected by the disaster and it shall include, inter alia, ex gratia assistance on account of loss of life. Providing such ex gratia assistance on account of loss of life is not only a statutory obligation under Section 12 of the DMA 2005, but it is the constitutional obligation also since it also affects the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.The guidelines to this effect must be notified within a period of 6 weeks.
Relevant extracts of the judgment have been reproduced below-
“We direct the National Disaster Management Authority to recommend guidelines for ex gratia assistance on account of loss of life to the family members of the persons who died due to Covid-19, as mandated under Section 12(iii) of DMA 2005 for the minimum standards of relief to be provided to the persons affected by disaster – Covid 19 Pandemic, over and above the guidelines already recommended for the minimum standards of relief to be provided to persons affected by Covid-19. However, what reasonable amount to be offered towards ex gratia assistance is left to the wisdom of National Authority which may consider determining the amount taking into consideration the observations made hereinabove, such as, requirement/availability of the fund under the NDRF/SDRF for other reliefs and the priorities determined by the National Authority/Union Government and the fund required for other minimum standards of relief and fund required for prevention, preparedness, mitigation and recovery and other reliefs to carry out the obligation under DMA 2005. The aforesaid exercise and appropriate guidelines be recommended, as directed hereinabove, within a period of six weeks from today;
2) The Appropriate Authority is directed to issue simplified guidelines for issuance of Death Certificates/official document stating the exact cause of death, i.e., “Death due to Covid-19”, to the family members of the deceased who died due to Covid-19. While issuing such guidelines, the observations made hereinabove in paragraph 13 be borne in mind. Such guidelines may also provide the remedy to the family members of the deceased who died due to Covid-19 for correction of the death certificate/official document issued by the appropriate authority, if they are not satisfied with the cause of death mentioned in the death certificate/official document issued by the appropriate authority; “
