Covid-19: Reconsider excluding compensation for suicide victims, SC tells Centre

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to reconsider its decision to exclude from its guidelines compensation to persons who committed suicide after being diagnosed with Covid19A bench of Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that it did not prima facie agree with the exclusion of such persons from the purview of compensationThe top court was considering the fresh guidelines issued by the Centre to simplify the process of issuance of death certificates as per the directions in the judgment delivered on June 30The apex court asked the Solicitor General about the persons who committed suicide while they were suffering from CoronaThe bench said that exclusion of suicides where Covid19 was an accompanying condition cannot be prima facie accepted under the guidelinesYou have to reconsider this the top court saidAlso Read Whether Centre used Pegasus or not cant be put on affidavit Centre to SCAdvocate Gaurav Bansal submitted that Centres decision to exclude suicide from Covid19 deaths even if Covid19 is an accompanying condition is irrational and arbitraryRecently National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences herein after referred as NIMHANS also issued a Research Study titled as ldquoSuicide in the context of Covid19 diagnosis in India Insights and implications from online print media reportsrdquo The petitioner has learnt from the said NIMHANS Research Study that Covid19 related suicide rates are well above the National Average Suicide Rate and as such there is an urgent need to address the same Bansal said in an affidavitThe Centre had earlier told the apex court that the health ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR have come out with guidelines for issuing official documents for Covidrelated deathsIn an affidavit filed before the top court the Centre had also submitted that the Office of the Registrar General of India on September 3 had issued a circular to provide a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death to the next of kin of the deceasedDeaths occurring due to poisoning suicide homicide and deaths due to accident among others will not be considered as Covid19 deaths even if Covid19 is an accompanying condition the guidelines statedCovid19 cases which are not resolved and have died either in hospital settings or at home and where a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death MCCD in Form 4 and 4 A has been issued to the registering authority as required under Section 10 of the Registration of Birth and Death RBD Act 1969 will be treated as a Covid19 deathrdquo according to the guidelinesThe Registrar General of India will issue necessary guidelines to chief registrars of all states and union territories in this regardIn its June 30 verdict the top court had also ordered steps to simplify guidelines for issuance and correction of death certificatesofficial documents stating the exact cause of death that is Death due to Covid19 for enabling dependents to get benefits of welfare schemesThe top courts verdict had come on two separate pleas filed by lawyers Reepak Kansal and Gaurav Kumar Bansal seeking directions to the Centre and the states to provide Rs four lakh as compensation to the families of coronavirus victims as provisioned under the ActFour intervenors who had lost their family members due to Covid19 have also moved the top court through advocate Sumeer Sodhi contending that there cannot be any discrimination in the amounts being paid by different states to family members of those who had succumbed to the deadly infectionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever