Supreme Court of India
GAURAV KUMAR BANSAL versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS. on 24 March 2022
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2022] 2 S.C.R.
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GAURAV KUMAR BANSAL
v.
UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
(Interlocutory Application No. 40111 of 2022)
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(Application For Directions)
In
(Miscellaneous Application No. 1805 of 2021)
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Writ Petition (C) No. 539 of 2021
MARCH 24, 2022
[M. R. SHAH AND B. V. NAGARATHNA, JJ]
COVID-19 Pandemic – Ex Gratia compensation, grant to theDfamily members on the death of covid patient – Time Limit – Falseclaims – Application by Union of India praying for modification ofOrder of this Court dated 30.06.2021 for verification of claimeddocuments and for declaring the extent of time limit for grant ofsuch claims – Held: If there is no outer time limit fixed then theEprocess of receiving the claims would go endless and, in that case,there is all possibility of submitting false claims – Therefore, outerlimit of sixty days is fixed to file the claims for compensation in casethe death occurred due to COVID-19 prior to 20.03.2022 – Alsofor future deaths, ninety days’ time provided from the date of deathdue to COVID-19 to file the claim for compensation – If any claimantFin case of extreme hardship, could not make an application withinthe time prescribed, it will be open for the claimant to approach theGrievance Redressal Committe – Directions passed to the Unionand the States to give wide publicity to this order through print andelectronic media so that the claimants can know the time limit fixedGby this Court for making claim – Making a false claim on submittingfalse certificates and obtaining any relief on that basis is apunishable offence under s.52 of the Act, 2005 – Nobody can bepermitted to avail the ex-gratia compensation by making a falseclaim and/or submitting the false certificate – Permission grantedto NDMA/Union of India to carrry out the random scrutiny of 5%H
of the claim applications by the State of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat,Kerala and Maharashtra at the first instance – Applicationaccordingly disposed of – Disaster Management Act, 2005.
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Interlocutory ApplicationNo. 40111 of 2022 in Miscellaneous Application No. 1805 of 2021 inWrit Petition (C) No. 539 of 2021.
(UNDER ARTICLE 32 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA)
Pranjal Kishore, Aditya Jain-1, Advs. for the Petitioner.
Tushar Mehta, SG, K. M. Nataraj, Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, ASGs,Anil Grover, Saurabh Mishra, Ardhendumauli Kumar Prasad, RahulVerma, Amit Anand Tiwari, Mrs. Prachi Mishra, AAGs, Vivek Kohli,Adv. General, Ms. Manisha Lavkumar, R. Basant, Dr. Manish Singhvi,Sr. Advs., Rajat Nair, Amit Sharma, Sughosh Subramanyam, Ms. PreetiRani, Manish, Arvind Kr. Sharma, G. S. Makker, B. V. Balaram Das,Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, Polanki Gowtham,Shaik Mohamad Haneef, T. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, K. V. GirishChowdary, Ms. Rajeswari Mukherjee, Ms. Diksha Rai, Ankit Agarwal,Ms. Ragini Pandey, Arun R. Pednekar, Aditya Manubarwala, Ms. MuktiChowdhary, Dr. Monika Gusain, Ms. Noopur Singhal, Rahul Khurana,Sanjay Kumar Visen, Satish Kumar, Ms. Babita Mishra, G. M. Kawoosa,Ms. Taruna Ardhendumauli Prasad, Sunny Choudhary, Nachiketa Joshi,Sandeep Sharma, Rahul Chitnis, Sachin Patil, Aaditya A. Pande, GeoJoseph, Ms. Shwetal Shepal, Siddhesh Kotwal, Ms. Ana Upadhyay, Ms.Manya Hasija, Akash Singh, Nirnimesh Dube, Joby P. Varghese, Ms.Ranjeeta Rohatgi, Arpit Parkash, Sandeep Kumar Jha, Tanmaya Agarwal,Wrick Chatterjee, Upendra Mishra, Ashish Ranjan, Vishwa Pal Singh,Surjeet Singh, Suhaan Mukerji, Raghent Basant, Nikhil Parikshith, VishalPrasad, Abhishek Manchanda, Sayandeep Pahari, Tanmay Sinha, M/sPLR Chambers and Co., Shubham Bhalla, Deepak Samota, Yajur Bhalla,Sumeir Ahuja, Aravindh S., Ms. C. Rubavathi, Sumeer Sodhi, S. UdayaKumar Sagar, Ms. Sweena Nair, P. Mohith Rao, Ms. Pragya Baghel,Ms. Tulika Mukherjee, Abhishek Roy, Zain A. Khan, Ms. Aastha Shrestha,Avijit Mani Tripathi, K. V. Kharlyngdoh, P. S. Negi, Daniel Lyngdoh, D.Kumanan, Sheikh F. Kalia, Chirag M. Shroff, Amandeep Mehta, SameerAbhyankar, Ms. Yeshi Rinchhen, Abhinav Mishra, Ms. Nishi Sangatani,Sunil Saraogi, Abhinav Mukerji, Mrs. Bihu Sharma, Ms. Pratishta Vij,Akshay C. Shrivastava, Nishe Rajan Shonker, Ms. Anu K. Joy, Alim AB
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AAnvar, Abhimanyu Tewari, Ms. Eliza Bar, Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar,Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Karun Sharma, V. N. Raghupathy, Md. ApzalAnsari, Mrs. K. Enatoli Sema, Amit Kumar Singh, Ms. ChubalemlaChang, Mahesh Kumar, Nikhilesh Kumar, Ms. Devika Khanna, Mrs. V.D. Khanna for M/s VMZ Chambers, Shuvodeep Roy, Kabir ShankarBose, Ishaan Borthakur, D. K. Devesh, Advs. for the Respondents.B
The Order of the Court was passed by
M. R. SHAH, J.
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1. Present application is preferred by the Union of India- Ministryof Home Affairs with the following prayers:-C
“(a) Modify the order dated 30.06.2021 and other subsequentorders passed by this Hon’ble Court in the captioned matterpermitting any central agency to undertake a sample scrutiny toverify the claimed documents processed by respective StateGovernments for grant of ex gratia payment and take stepsDthereafter in accordance with the law.
(b) Modify the order dated 30.06.2021 and other subsequent orderspassed by this Hon’ble Court in the captioned matter to the extentof declaring time limit of four weeks, from the date of order passedby this Hon’ble Court in the instant application, as an outer limitEfor the existing eligible claimants to lodge their claims with theauthorities for seeking grant of ex gratia payment under the ordersof this Hon’ble Court dated 30.06.2021 and a time of four weeksfor claimants who might become eligible in the future;”
2. Shri Tushar Mehta, learned Solicitor General has submittedFthat after the order was passed by this Court dated 30.06.2021 andother subsequent orders, the concerned States have receivedapproximately 7,38,610 claims claiming ex-gratia compensation on thedeath of their family members, who are entitled to the same pursuant tothe order passed by this Court dated 30.06.2021 and the subsequentorders. It is submitted that since the COVID-19 pandemic in the countryGhas now subsided over the period of time since this Hon’ble Court passedthe order dated 30.06.2021 and the subsequent order dated 29.11.2021,by now, all genuine claimants must have approached the authorities byestablishing their claims. It is submitted that therefore it is not desirableto continue the process of submitting/receiving the claims without anyHouter time limit. It is submitted that if no outer limit of time is fixed, in that case, there is agreater possibility of making false claims. Therefore,it is prayed to determine the deadline before which the claimants ofpersons who died due to COVID-19 can approach the authority makingtheir claims.
Shri Mehta, learned Solicitor General has suggested fixing thedeadline of four weeks to claim the exgratia payment from the authoritiesin case of death due to COVID-19.
2.1 Shri Mehta, learned Solicitor General has further submittedthat there are genuine apprehensions of submitting fake claims in someof the States. Therefore, it is prayed that there should be an audit and/orat-least random scrutiny of the claim applications filed in the respectiveStates. Shri Mehta, learned Solicitor General has submitted that receivingthe ex-gratia compensation by making a false claim or submitting fake/false certificate is a very serious matter. It is submitted that even as perSection 52 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (hereinafter referredto as “Act, 2005”), making a false claim for obtaining any relief underthe Act, 2005 is a punishable offence. It is brought to our notice that asof now approximately 7,38,610 claims are received and, therefore, itmay be very difficult to verify each and every claim. It is submitted thattherefore let there be a random sample scrutiny.
2.1.1 Shri R. Basant, learned Senior Advocate appearing on behalfof the State of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, Shri Rahul Chitnis, learnedcounsel appearing on behalf of the State of Maharashtra have alsosupported Shri Tushar Mehta, learned Solicitor General and havewelcomed the sample scrutiny to find out the persons, who have madefalse claims.
3. Having heard Shri Mehta, learned Solicitor General on therequest and the prayer made in the application and considering the factthat more than nine months have passed after the first judgment andorder and thereafter four months have passed after the subsequentjudgment and order dated 29.11.2021 passed by this Court and by nowapproximately 7,38,610 claims have been received by the concernedStates, Shri Mehta, learned Solicitor General is right in submitting that bynow all genuine claimants must have approached the authorities byestablishing their claims. He is also right in apprehending that if there isno outer time limit fixed, then the process of receiving the claims wouldgo endless and, in that case, there is all possibilityofsubmitting false claims.
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AHowever, at the same time, four weeks’ time suggested by Shri Mehta,learned Solicitor General is too short. The family would need somereasonable time to recover from the death and sorrow and filing theclaim. Therefore, we deem it appropriate to fix the outer limit of sixtydays from today to file the claims for compensation in case the deathoccurred due to COVID-19 prior to 20.03.2022.For future deaths, ninetyBdays’ time is provided from the date of death due to COVID-19 to filethe claim for compensation. The earlier order to process the claims andto make the actual payment of compensation within a period of thirtydays from the date of receipt of claim is ordered to be continued.
4. However it is clarified that in case of extreme hardship anyCclaimant could not make an application within the time prescribed, it willbe open for the claimant to approach the Grievance Redressal Committeeand make the claim through Grievance Redressal Committee which shallbe considered by the Grievance Redressal Committee on case to casebasis and if it is found by the Grievance Redressal Committee that aDparticular claimant could not make the claim within the stipulated timewhich was beyond their control his/her case may be considered on merits.
5. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of HomeAffairs – Union of India and all the concerned States are directed togive wide publicity to the present order through print and electronic mediaEso that the claimants can know the time limit fixed by this Court formaking claims. Such advertisement shall be published fortnightly for aperiod of six weeks from today.
6. Now, so far as the allegation of submitting fake claims onsubmitting false certificates or obtaining the compensation on submittingFthe false claim is concerned, it is required to be noted that making a falseclaim and obtaining any relief on that basis is a punishable offence underSection 52 of the Act, 2005, which reads as under:- “52. Punishment for false claim.—Whoever knowingly makesa claim which he knows or has reason to believe to be false forGobtaining any relief, assistance, repair, reconstruction or otherbenefits consequent to disaster from any officer of the CentralGovernment, the State Government, the National Authority, theState Authority or the District Authority, shall, on conviction bepunishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend totwo years, and also with fine.”
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6.1 Nobody can be permitted to avail the ex-gratia compensationby making a false claim and/or submitting the false certificate. A claimantis entitled to the ex-gratia of Rs.50,000/- being a kin/family member ofthose, who died due to COVID-19. Earlier, this Court passed the orderdirecting the Union of India/NDMA/concerned States to pay ex-gratiaamount keeping in mind the humanity and keeping in mind the sufferingsof the family members who lost one of their family members due toCOVID-19. Therefore, nobody can be permitted to misuse the sameand it is also against morality and is unethical, which can never beaccepted. Therefore, to start with a random scrutiny of the 5% of theclaim applications filed in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Keralaand Maharashtra shall be made at the first instance. We permit theNDMA/Union of India, through Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,to carry out the random scrutiny of 5% of the claim applications by theStatesof Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra at the firstinstance. The concerned States are directed to assist in carrying out thescrutiny of the claim applications as ordered above and submit all thenecessary particulars of the respective claims that have been attended/processed to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, who shall carryout the scrutiny within a period of three months from today and submitthe report before this Court. If it is found that anybody has made a fakeclaim, the same shall be considered under Section 52 of the Act, 2005and liable to be punished accordingly.
Present application is accordingly disposed of in terms of the abovedirections.
Devika Gujral
Application disposed of.
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