The Madras high court said on Friday that there are complaints across the country that all Covid deaths may not have been properly recorded, and it requested responses from the Union and Tamil Nadu governments.
The court stated that accurate recording is required for families to be eligible for state and federal government assistance for Covid deaths, as well as for future studies on the pandemic.
The observations were made by a bench consisting of chief justice Sanjib Banerjee and justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy in a public interest lawsuit in which state officials were ordered to implement an effective policy to correctly report the cause of death. The plea added that this should be done in accordance with the law, ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines, and other relevant parameters, such as international standards, in order for people to benefit from government schemes without difficulty.
“There are complaints across the country that all of the deaths caused by the pandemic may not have been properly recorded… According to some reports in this state, unless a positive test report was issued in respect of the patient, the subsequent death would not be recorded as a Covid death,” the court said, acknowledging that the petition had raised an important point.
This comes a day after Tamil Nadu’s health minister, M Subramanian, told reporters that Covid-19 patients who test negative at the time of death but die from other causes like heart attacks or shortness of breath will not be counted as Covid deaths. He was responding to allegations made by opposition leaders that people were losing money because Covid was not listed as the cause of death on death certificates. According to Subramanian, the state follows ICMR guidelines.
The court said it is necessary to conduct an appropriate study and, if required, by a specialised team. “It would also be fit and proper to require death certificates already issued to be revised, if necessary; if only not to deny the relief due to the family of the deceased in terms of the several schemes announced by the central and the state governments,” the bench observed.
When the case is heard on June 28, by which time the state must submit a preliminary response, the court will go over the details in detail. A copy of the petition has been sent to additional solicitor general R Sankaranarayanan in order to obtain the Union’s response.
