Supreme Court fixes timeline for filing claims for Covid ex-gratia: Centre

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry in a statement on Monday said that the Supreme Court vide its Order dated March 24 in the Miscellaneous Application No. 1805 of 2021 in Writ Petition (C) No. 539 has fixed the a timeline to file claims for the payment of ex-gratia assistance to the families of Covid-19 deceased as announced by National Disaster Management Authority.

An outer time limit of 60 days will be applicable from March 24 to file the claims for compensation in case the death occurred due to Covid1 prior to March 20, said the ministry.

As per the direction from apex court, for any future deaths, 90 days' time shall be provided from the date of death due to Covid-19 to file the claim for compensation. However, the earlier order to process the claims and to make the actual payment of compensation within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of claim shall continue to be enforced.

"The Hon'ble Court, however, directed that in case of extreme hardship where any claimant could not make an application within the time prescribed, it will be open for the claimant to approach the Grievance Redressal Committee and make the claim through Grievance Redressal Committee which shall be considered by the Grievance Redressal Committee on case to case basis and if it is found by the Grievance Redressal Committee that a particular claimant could not make the claim within the stipulated time which was beyond their control his/her case may be considered on merits", said the ministry in the statement.

The ministry added further that the court has also directed that in a bid to minimise the risk of fake claims, a random scrutiny of the 5 per cent of the claim applications shall be made at the first instance.