Covid ex-gratia: SC ropes in State Legal Services
New Delhi, Jan. 20: Taking a cue from the Gujarat high court order passed in the aftermath of the 2001 earthquake in the State, the Supreme Court has directed all the states to share the particulars of registered death due to Covid along with details of payment of compensation with State Legal Services Authorities to reach out to the affected families.
The top court said that the member secretary of the State Legal Services Authority shall act as an Ombudsman and as the facilitator.
It asked the states to cross-check/verify whether with respect to all the deaths recorded/registered, the claims are received or not and if it is found that with respect to some of the deaths recorded/registered, no payment has been made to the affected families its official must try to reach out to them.
A bench of Justices MR Shah and Sanjiv Khanna passed a detailed order on Thursday and said, “We also direct all the states to furnish full particulars/ information to the concerned State Legal Services Authorities with respect to deaths recorded/registered and also the particulars whether the payment of compensation with respect to those deaths have been made or not?.
It made it clear that the said exercise of sharing of details of recorded death and particulars of payment of ex-gratia to the family member or kin shall be completed by the concerned states, within 10 days.
“If it is found by the Member Secretary of the concerned State Legal Services Authority that with respect to deaths recorded, the claims are not received and/or the amount of compensation is not paid, in that case, the concerned State Legal Services Authority through the concerned District Legal Services Authority and/or Taluka Legal Services Authority, as the case may be, shall reach to the concerned persons so that claims are submitted and actual payments are made to them,”, the bench said.
Justice Shah, while hearing the submissions on disbursal of claims on Wednesday, had said that the top court may follow the Gujarat high court model involving State Legal Services Authority for providing relief to the affected families.