The Supreme Court has allowed the Central Government to investigate false claims for receiving ex-gratia to the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to COVID-19.
A bench of Justice MR Shah said the central government can verify five per cent of the claims in four states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, where there was a significant difference between the number of claims and the number of deaths recorded.
The top court fixed a period of 60 days for those who are eligible to apply for ex-gratia compensation and 90 days for making such applications in future.
The Center had earlier filed a petition seeking a time limit of four weeks from the administration for claiming ex-gratia amount in case of death of a relative due to COVID-19.
At the same time, the court had also expressed concern over false claims for receiving ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 to the family members of those who lost their lives due to COVID-19. He said that he did not even think that it could be misused and felt that the standard of morality could not fall so low.