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Gaurav Kumar Bansal v. Union of India

Miscellaneous Application · 2021 INSC 613Decided 4 Oct 2021
Miscellaneous Application No. 1120 of 2021
Justice M.R. Shah · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

Following its earlier judgment dated 30 June 2021 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 539 of 2021, the Supreme Court had directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to recommend guidelines for ex-gratia compensation to families of persons who died of Covid-19, and directed the government to simplify the process for issuing official "death due to Covid-19" certificates. This Miscellaneous Application (No. 1120 of 2021) was filed to monitor and secure compliance with those directions, since the government had not yet finalised either the compensation amount or the death-certification guidelines.

Decision Breakdown

The Court recorded that the NDMA had, in the interim, issued guidelines dated 11 September 2021 recommending Rs. 50,000 as ex-gratia payment to the next of kin of each Covid-19 deceased, funded through the State Disaster Response Fund and disbursed by District Disaster Management Authorities. The Court finally approved and made binding this Rs. 50,000 ex-gratia amount, and issued detailed, final directions: claims must be processed within 30 days, no state may refuse payment merely because a death certificate does not explicitly record "died due to Covid-19," a District-level Grievance Redressal Committee must be constituted within a week to resolve certification disputes, deaths within 30 days of a positive test (even outside hospital) count as Covid-19 deaths, and even suicide within 30 days of a Covid-19 diagnosis qualifies for the payment. With these directions, the Miscellaneous Application was disposed of.

Lesson Learnt

When a government fails to promptly implement a court's directions, affected citizens (or public-spirited petitioners) can return to the same court through a compliance/monitoring application to have specific, enforceable terms fixed: here, turning a general direction into a concrete Rs. 50,000 payment with clear timelines and a dispute-resolution mechanism that ordinary families can actually use.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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