Centre seeks SC nod for sample scrutiny of Covid ex gratia claims by States

The Union government has asked the Supreme Court to let a central agency undertake sample scrutiny to verify the documents processed by the state governments for grant of ex gratia payment of Rs 50,000 to the families of Covid-19 victims.

It has raised concern over the flourishing illegal racket of preparing fake certificates in connivance with local officers to make claims.

The top court had earlier also taken a serious view of the matter and indicated to order a probe by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

In a formal application, the government also asked the top court to fix an outer limit of four weeks to make claims in case of any future death due to Covid-19.

Notably, the top court has been examining the compliance of its judgement of June 30, 2021, for disbursal of ex gratia to kin of Covid-19 victims, passed in a PIL filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal.

Also read: Covid deaths: Plea in SC wants deadline for seeking ex gratia payment

In a fresh plea, the Centre said, "reports have been received by the central government as well as by the state governments regarding fake/forged claims being submitted by some unscrupulous persons."

Considering the pain and plight of the family members of persons who lost their lives due to Covid-19 infection, the court had on sympathetic, benevolent and humanitarian grounds, directed expeditious payment of the ex-gratia payments to the next of kin of the victims, on production of documents.

However, in absence of any verification and scrutiny of the claim forms, some unscrupulous persons in the society started realising such ex-gratia payments on the basis of forged and fake claim documents.

Further, the reports received also do not rule out connivance of the local level officers appointed to clear the claims and existence of illegal rackets being flourishing to obtain ex-gratia payment granted by this court on forged and fake documents, it pointed out.

The government also said the court should now fix an outer limit of four weeks for making claims for the ex gratia.

Since the pandemic has subsided over the period of time and by now all genuine claimants must have approached the authorities, it may not be desirable to continue this process without any outer limit, it said.

So far over 5.16 lakh deaths have taken place due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

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