The Centre has requested a four-week extension from the Supreme Court to draught guidelines for ex-gratia relief to families of Covid-19 victims under the National Disaster Management Act (DMA) 2005.
According to a June 30 ruling by the Supreme Court, the central government has six weeks to draught guidelines under Section 12 (ii) of the 2005 Act, which outlines the minimum standards of relief to be provided to those affected by Covid-19. The Centre is required to demarcate the categories of beneficiaries and determine the amount of ex-gratia in accordance with this provision. The six-week period is set to end on August 11th.
The Centre stated in an application filed in the Supreme Court on Monday that the NDMA is in the process of framing guidelines and is nearing completion of the ex-gratia scheme.
“The exercise to frame appropriate guidelines for payment of ex-gratia payment to the victims of Covid-19 disaster under Section 12(iii) of the DMA is in active consideration of the NDMA and going on. This exercise, though at an active advance stage, requires a little more in-depth examination before the same is finalized and implemented,” the application read.
As per data available with the ministry of health and family welfare, over 4.14 lakh people had died due to the virus till Tuesday.
“Any accelerated formulation, in the respectful submission of the applicant, may result in undesirable results,” the Centre said.
The application requested the court to grant additional four weeks to enable the NDMA to prepare a “comprehensive and robust formulation”.
An application filed in a disposed case should ideally be heard in the Supreme Court by the same bench that rendered the decision. Justice Ashok, one of the two judges on the two-judge bench who issued the order, has since retired. Justice M R Shah was the author of the decision.
Following the Centre’s application, the Chief Justice of India may decide to refer the case to a new bench or a bench with only Justice Shah as a member for hearing.
Two separate public interest litigations (PILs) filed by two lawyers, Reepak Kansal and Gaurav Kumar Bansal, led to the court’s significant ruling in June. The two petitioners had cited a notification issued on April 8, 2015, by the ministry of home affairs, the nodal ministry for DMA, in which the government quantified an ex-gratia compensation of Rs. 4 lakh to victims killed in a notified disaster for relief under Section 12(iii) of the 2005 Act.
The PIL demanded that the April 2015 notification be extended to such victims since Covid-19 was declared a “notified” disaster on March 14, 2020.
