Read Time: 06 minutes

In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) pertaining to ex-gratia compensation to covid victims' kins, the Bombay High Court recently orally observed that ex-gratia compensation for the heirs of covid deads is a matter of their right and they must not be deprived of the same.

Lambasting the Maharashtra government over denial of payment of the compensation to certain applicants, a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik reminded it that the Supreme Court has recently directed all state and central authorities to reach out to the kin of Covid victims and pay them the ex-gratia compensation.

The court said, 

"The spirit of the Supreme Court order is that the state must reach kin of those who died of Covid. Why must you be so technical that they have to apply online only? The web portal is for the state government's convenience. Getting the compensation is their (the kin of victims) right. Why must they be deprived? Reach out to them,”

Observing thus, the bench directed the government to take instructions as to why the claims for compensation filed through post or physically were being denied or delayed.

A Non-governmental organizations namely Prameya Welfare Foundation, had filed a PIL seeking payment of the ex-gratia compensation to those who had applied for it physically or through post as the same were being denied t=or delayed. The NGO had also sought directions to the State government that it must not insist for such applications to be filed online only.

The petitioner's counsel Sumedha Rao had argued before the court that many of the applicants for the ex-gratia payment were slum dwellers or poor people, who were not adept at filing claims and annexing documents online.

She had alleged that their applications were being rejected without being given reasons for such rejection or being informed of the status of their applications.

“These are poor people who find the online system difficult since they have to upload so many annexures. They have applied through post, physically but have got no response, no reasons,” she had said.

On the other hand, Government pleader Poornima Kantharia had said that the government had created the online portal so that one could make a claim for compensation online and the money would be transferred directly to their bank accounts. She had further asserted that the government had already paid compensation to several claimants who had applied through its online portal.

Additionally, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had also sumitted that so far it had received around 34,000 applications seeking the compensation amount and of these 16,884 applications had been forwarded to the disaster management department for approval and payments. The rest had some issues such as incomplete addresses, missing information etc, BMC had added.

The BMC had further claimed that it was also forwarding applications that were from areas outside of its jurisdiction, to relevant authorities.

Case Title: Prameya Welfare Foundation v State of Maharashtra

(With inputs from FPJ)