SC expresses concern over fake reporting of Covid-19 deaths

Last updated on March 15th, 2022 at 04:53 am

The Supreme Court expressed its concern that the deaths being reported accounted for Covid-19 pandemic may not be genuine cases.

The apex body feared that there are many fake claims by many family members who are attempting to fetch ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000 from the government. This amount was essentially restricted for the family members of those who have lost their lives due to the virus and is not for everyone.

On Monday, it said that it never thought that something as serious as this can be misused and was of the mindset that the mortality may not have actually gone down and the cases were genuinely increasing.

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The bench held by justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said, “We never expected and visualized that it can be misused also. It is a very pious work and we had thought that our morality has not gone so down that in this also, there will be some fake claims.”

The further added that they will now be entrusting enquiry related to the matter to the accountant general’s office. It was only last week when the bench had expressed its concern over the rising number of fake death certificates issued over deaths of Covid-19 patients in greed for ex-gratia compensation.

It said that it was a very serious matter and assumed that there are some officers within the system who are involved in such practices. Following the suspicions, the SC had directed all the states as well as the Union Territories to leave the matter to the nodal officer who will be coordinating with the member secretary of the state legal service authority to execute the whole process of ex-gratia compensation.