The Supreme Court today has directed the Centre to frame guidelines specifying ex-gratia amount for persons who died due to Covid-19 within six weeks. Although, SC is yet to fix any amount that is to be given and has left it to the wisdom of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The order came in two separate petitions. The petitions were filed by advocates Gaurav Kumar Bansal and Reepak Kansal. The petition claimed that Covid being a disaster notified under the Disaster Management Act (DMA) 2005, the Central government will be bound by Section 12(iii) of the Act providing for ex-gratia of ₹4 lakh for those who died during the disaster. On March 14, 2020, the Centre had declared Covid-19 to be a disaster under DMA.
SC said, under Section 12(iii) of DMA, it was mandatory for NDMA to issue guidelines on ex-gratia under minimum standards of relief as the word used in the Act is “shall”.
The bench of justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah in an interview with leading daily said, “The statutory duty is cast upon the authority to frame guidelines for ex-gratia. By not recommending ex-gratia, it can be said that the national authority (NDMA) failed to perform its statutory duty under Section 12 of DMA,”
The court also directed the Centre to issue simplified guidelines for issuance of the certificate of death due to Covid-19 and for making corrections in the certificate already issued. The bench further directed the Centre to take appropriate steps for providing insurance cover as recommended by the finance commission
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