New Delhi: The Supreme Court has lashed out at the Gujarat government for constituting a “scrutiny” committee for the disbursal of ex-gratia compensation for COVID-19 deaths, overreaching the court’s direction, therefore making the process “cumbersome”.According to LiveLaw, the state government had issued a notification for the formation of a scrutiny committee for issuing death certificates to get compensation. The apex court had insisted that an RT-PCR test report and death certificate showing that the death has occurred within 30 days are the only requirements to receive compensation.The Supreme Court had on October 4 issued a number of guidelines to be followed on the disbursal of ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000 to the families of COVID-19 victims. It was recommended by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).The bench comprising Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna observed on November 18 that the constitution of the scrutiny committee appeared to be “an attempt to overreach the directions” passed in the judgment in the case.Also read: India’s COVID Death Reporting Is Broken but Here’s How to Fix ItJustice Shah asked: “We never asked you to appoint a scrutiny committee. We cannot accept the amended one also. It will take one year for getting the certificate from the scrutiny committee. It says come with the hospital certificate? Which hospital is giving the certificate?”The court described the committee as a bureaucratic attempt to delay providing compensation to the families of victims.“At least 10,000 persons should get it. Has anyone gotten it yet? Otherwise next time we will appoint Legal Service Authority Members as [an] ombudsman, like we did during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake for disbursement of compensation,” Justice Shah further said.The bench also asked the Union government to collect the data from the states regarding the payment of ex-gratia for COVID-19 deaths and the setting up of grievance redressal committees.Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, submitted that the notification was recorded in an “idiotic” manner, and undertook that a modified resolution will be passed, the report said.The top court, therefore, asked the state government to simplify the procedure of disbursing compensation to the families of COVID-19 victims. It further asked the state to respond to its observations by November 22, Monday.The state government had claimed – as of 10:49 pm on August 16 – that 10,075 people had died due to COVID-19 since the pandemic began in early 2020. However, The Wire had reported that the state undercounted the death toll by at least 27 times. An analysis of data from 68 of the state’s 170 municipalities showed there were 16,892 “excess deaths” between March 2020 and April 2021. If extrapolated for the entire state, it would mean the actual COVID death toll in Gujarat is at least 2.81 lakh.The matter will be next heard on November 29.
