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Gaurav Kumar Bansal vs. Union of India & Ors.

Not available · 2022 INSC 343Decided 24 Mar 2022
Not available
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

Following earlier Supreme Court orders (30.06.2021 and 29.11.2021) directing the Union and State Governments to pay Rs. 50,000 ex-gratia compensation to the families of those who died of COVID-19, about 7,38,610 claims had been received nationwide with no fixed deadline for filing new claims. The Union of India (Ministry of Home Affairs) filed an application asking the Court to fix an outer time limit for lodging claims and to allow random/sample scrutiny of claims already processed by the States, citing a genuine risk of false claims given the large payout involved.

Decision Breakdown

The Court agreed that an indefinite claim window risked abuse but found the Solicitor General's suggested four-week deadline too short, given the emotional toll on grieving families. It fixed 60 days from the date of the order for claims relating to COVID-19 deaths occurring before 20 March 2022, and 90 days from the date of death for future COVID-19 deaths, while keeping the earlier 30-day timeline for processing and paying claims once received. It carved out an exception: claimants unable to apply in time due to extreme hardship could still approach a Grievance Redressal Committee for case-by-case relief. The Court directed wide publicity of the order and permitted the NDMA/Union, through the Ministry of Health, to conduct a random 5% scrutiny of claims processed in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra as a first step, noting that knowingly making a false claim for disaster relief is a punishable offence under Section 52 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (up to two years' imprisonment plus fine).

Lesson Learnt

Government welfare schemes created under court direction can still have reasonable deadlines and verification mechanisms attached to prevent fraud, but courts will balance administrative concerns against the genuine hardship of claimants (such as grieving families) rather than accepting whatever timeline the government proposes; separately, submitting a false claim for disaster relief is a criminal offence, not just a civil wrong.

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

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