The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it cannot pay Rs 4 lakh as ex-gratia to families of Covid-19 victims, citing that it applies only to cases of natural disasters.

In a 183-page affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the Centre has said that states cannot pay money to kin of every victim and denying compensation for diseases other than Covid would be "unfair", according to a report by ndtv.com.

“If an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh is given for every person who loses life due to Covid-19, the entire amount of SDRF may possibly be spent on this item alone, and indeed the total expenditure may go up further,” it said. India has lost more than 3.85 lakh people to Covid-19.

The government's response comes after the Supreme Court asked it to inform its policy on Covid compensation and death certificates after a plea asked for Rs 4 lakh for kin of those who lost lives.

“If the entire SDRF funds get consumed on ex-gratia for Covid-19 victims, the States may not have sufficient funds for organizing Covid-19 response, for provision of various essential medical and other supplies, or to take care of other disasters like cyclones, floods, etc. Hence, the prayer of the petitioner for payment of ex-gratia to all deceased persons due to Covid-19, is beyond the fiscal affordability of the State governments,” the affidavit added.

“Utilisation of scarce resources for giving ex-gratia, may have unfortunate consequences of affecting the pandemic response and health expenditure in other aspects and hence cause more damage than good,” it further said.

The affidavit also said that "Covid death" will be mentioned in death certificates of every victim. Doctors who fail to certify Covid deaths will be penalised, the government said, as per the ndtv.com report.

The Supreme Court is set to hear the case on Monday.