COVID-19 Pandemic – Ex Gratia compensation, grant to the family members on the death of covid patient – Time Limit – False claims – Application by Union of India praying for modification of Order of this Court dated 30.06.2021 for verification of claimed documents and for declaring the extent of time limit for grant of such claims – Held: If there is no outer time limit fixed then the process of receiving the claims would go endless and, in that case, there is all possibility of submitting false claims – Therefore, outer limit of sixty days is fixed to file the claims for compensation in case the death occurred due to COVID-19 prior to 20.03.2022 – Also for future deaths, ninety days’ time provided from the date of death due to COVID-19 to file the claim for compensation – If any claimant in case of extreme hardship, could not make an application within the time prescribed, it will be open for the claimant to approach the Grievance Redressal Committe – Directions passed to the Union and the States to give wide publicity to this order through print and electronic media so that the claimants can know the time limit fixed by this Court for making claim – Making a false claim on submitting false certificates and obtaining any relief on that basis is a punishable offence under s.52 of the Act, 2005 – Nobody can be permitted to avail the ex-gratia compensation by making a false claim and/or submitting the false certificate – Permission granted to NDMA/Union of India to carrry out the random scrutiny of 5% of the claim applications by the State of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra at the first instance – Application accordingly disposed of – Disaster Management Act, 2005.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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