Petitioners have asked for Rs 4 lakh compensation to families of those who died of COVID-19 (File)
Guidelines on financial compensation for those who died after contracting the coronavirus must be submitted by September 23, the Supreme Court told the government today.
The court also asked the government to reconsider a clause that specifies "deaths due to poisoning, suicide, homicide and accident, among others will not be considered (for issue of a COVID-19 death certificate)... even if COVID-19 is an accompanying condition".
"You have said if a person committed suicide after (being infected with) COVID-19, there will be no compensation... this cannot be accepted. You have to re-consider this," a bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice AS Bopanna said.
The government has agreed to reconsider the clause.
Yesterday the government told the court that the Health Ministry and the ICMR had worked out a set of guidelines for the issue of an "official document" for Covid-related deaths.
That affidavit was submitted 10 days after the court rapped the government over a delay in formulating rules for the issue of a Covid death certificate.
"Order on death certificates, (compensation for) deaths was passed long back. By the time you take further steps, third wave will also be over," the court had said.
In June the court ruled that the families of those who died from Covid should get financial compensation, and gave the NDMA six weeks to decide on the amount and frame guidelines.
The court said the NDMA was bound to give "minimum standards of relief, which includes ex-gratia assistance", but said the actual amount would be left "to the wisdom of the authority".
The government had argued that as per Section 12 of the Disaster Management Act, the word "shall" should be construed as "may", meaning it is not mandatory to provide compensation.
The government also said compensation could not be paid as it applied only to natural disasters, and that states could not afford to pay Rs 4 lakh for every family.
The Congress slammed the centre over this issue, demanding compensation of Rs 10 lakh per family and saying the government had no right to rule it could not provide this sum.
As of Monday morning over 4.42 lakh COVID-19 deaths have been recorded (219 in the past 24 hours), but experts believe the overall number is lower (perhaps significantly so) than the actual.
In July - after the devastating second wave tapered off - media reports began speculating the actual numbers of dead could be in the millions. The government firmly denied such reports.