COVID Death Compensation: Govt Gets 4 More Weeks To Frame Guidelines

New Delhi: The Union government has been granted a month’s extension for framing ex-gratia compensation for COVID-19 deaths.

The Supreme Court, however, directed the government to inform within two weeks steps it has taken to issue COVID death certificate guidelines, and a national insurance scheme for disaster-related deaths, Hindustan Times reported.

These were part of the apex court’s order passed on June 30.

“The time for framing of guidelines for ex-gratia compensation under Section 12(iii) of the Disaster Management Act 2005 is extended by four weeks. However, the Centre shall place on record its response setting out compliance effected of other guidelines,” said a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah.

In its June 30 order, the Supreme Court said that the government was required to pay ex-gratia compensation for COVID-19 deaths since it had been declared as a notified disaster under the 2005 Act.

However, the court left it to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to fix the amount of compensation while framing guidelines within six weeks.

With the six-week period ending on August 12, the Centre had appealed for an extension.

The next hearing will be after two weeks.