The Supreme Court on Friday; ordered all states, including orphans, to provide comprehensive details of compensation to the concerned State Legal Service Authority (SLSA) within a week.
Apart from that; the states were ordered to assign an officer to work with the SLSA to assure that all qualified victims receive compensation.
During the hearing of Gaurav Kumar Bansal’s plea; seeking ex-gratia payments to families of individuals who died of Covid-19, the Division Bench headed by Justice M.R. Shah and Justice B.V. Nagarathna expressed concern with state governments’ laxity on compensation.
The Supreme Court further ordered; the state governments to pay compensation to the victims within 10 days of receiving compensation applications.
“If the member secretary (MS) discovers that any family members have not yet been compensated, the MS of SLSA will contact them through a secretary DLSA/Secretary Taluka and through paralegal volunteers.” Their job would be to make it easier for those folks to receive recompense. Their function will be that of an ombudsman. They will approach the concerned person if there is a problem. “All parties shall cooperate in the above-mentioned process,” the Court stated.
Furthermore, many states are refusing to accept the applications on technical grounds; the Court ruled that if there is a problem, the State must allow them time to fix it. “The State’s ultimate purpose is to bring some comfort to the bereaved family of the victim.”
During the Court hearing, Justice Shah stated that no state has provided any information about the case. Only figures have been provided by the states. Apart from that;the bench noted that compensation cheques issued by Karnataka had bounced and advised the state to ensure that this did not happen again.
On June 30, 2021, the Supreme Court ordered; the National Disaster Management Authority to recommend guidelines for ex-gratia assistance to the family members of those who died as a result of Covid-19, as required by Section 12(iii) of the DMA 2005 for the minimum standards of relief to be provided to those affected by the pandemic.
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