Supreme Court reserves order on Covid death compensation plea

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on aplea filed by the Union government seeking a time-limit for submitting claims for Covid-19 death compensation and also seeking measures to clear out fake claims.

A bench of Justices MR Shah and NV Nagarathna was hearing the application filed by the Centre seeking permission for any central agency to undertake a sample scrutiny to verify the claimed documents processed by respective state governments for grant of ex gratia payment and take steps in accordance with the law.

“It is submitted that in the interregnum reports have been received by the Central government as well as by the state governments regarding fake/forged claims being submitted by some unscrupulous persons. However, in absence of any verification and scrutiny of the claim forms, some unscrupulous persons started realising such ex gratia payments on the basis of forged and fake claim documents."

"Further, the reports received also do not rule out connivance of the local level officers appointed to clear the claims and existence of illegal rackets being flourishing to obtain ex gratia payment granted by this Hon’ble court on forged and fake documentsn” the application by the centre reads.

The court said four weeks might not be sufficient for people to apply for the compensation as the families would be in shock and grieving. The court was also informed that Maharashtra,Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala have received the most fake claims which would be scrutinised.