SC TELLS GOVT TO FRAME COVID-19 DEATH CERTIFICATE RULES BY SEPT 11

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Union government a “last opportunity” till September 11 to report compliance on the issuance of death certificates for Covid-linked fatalities and to frame a national insurance scheme for disasterrelated deaths.

The two directions mentioned above were part of a landmark June 30 top court order that entitled people who died after being infected with Covid-19 to an ex-gratia amount under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The court, at the time, granted the Centre six weeks then to fix the amount. This period was extended by four weeks on August 16, when the court also gave the Centre two weeks to report compliance on its other directions.

Appearing for the Centre, solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta said that the Centre was in the process of complying with the June 30 order, and required another week to file its response.

To this, a bench of justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose said: “By the time you will take steps, even the third wave [of Covid cases] will be over. Our orders directing correction of death certificates was passed long back. You agreed to file a response on our directions by today. We will now grant you last opportunity.”

The court asked that the affidavit be filed by September 11, and posted the matter for hearing on September 13.

Advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, who filed the public interest litigation (PIL) resulting in the June 30 order, told the court that the Centre should respect the court’s verdict. “It is unfortunate that the Centre is delaying compliance,” Bansal said.