SC allows scrutiny of 5% ex-gratia claims
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Thursday permitted the Centre to conduct an inquiry into fake claims for ex-gratia compensation meant for family members of those who have lost their lives due to Covid-19 saying, “nobody can be permitted to avail the compensation by making a false claim or submitting the false certificate.
The government can verify 5 per cent of claims in four states -Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh -- where the gap between number of claims and recorded deaths was wide, said a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna.
“We permit the National Disaster Management Authority/ Union of India, through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to carry out the random scrutiny of 5 per cent of the claim applications by the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra at the first instance,” the bench said.
If it is found that anybody has made a fake claim, the same shall be considered under Section 52 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and liable to be punished accordingly, the bench said.
The apex court also set a period of 60 days which would be given to all such persons who are eligible as on date to apply for the ex-gratia compensation and 90 days shall be given to the future claimants.
“We deem it appropriate to fix the outer limit of 60 days from today to file the claims for compensation in case the death occurred due to Covid-19 prior to 20.03.2022. For future deaths, 90 days’ time is provided from the date of death due to Covid-19 to file the claim for compensation.
“The earlier order to process the claims and to make the actual payment of compensation within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of claim is ordered to be continued,” the bench said.
The top court directed the concerned States to assist in carrying out the scrutiny of the claim applications.
It also directed the states to submit all the necessary particulars of the respective claims that have been attended/processed to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, who shall carry out the scrutiny within a period of three months from today and submit the report before this court.
“If it is found that anybody has made a fake claim, the same shall be considered under Section 52 of the Act, 2005 and liable to be punished accordingly,” the bench said.
The Supreme Court directed the ministry of health and family welfare and ministry of home affairs and said that all the concerned states are directed to give wide publicity to the present order through print and electronic media so that the claimants can know the time limit fixed by this court for making claims.
Such advertisement shall be published fortnightly for a period of six weeks from today, it said.
The top court agreed with the submission of solicitor general Tushar Mehta that more than nine months have passed since the first judgment and noted that by now approximately 7,38,610 claims have been received by the concerned states.