The Supreme Court on Monday indicated it would fix an outer limit of four weeks for bereaved families to file applications for Covid death compensation. The family of a Covid victim is entitled to Rs 50,000 as compensation.

A bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice B. Nagathana also said it would direct a random scrutiny of 5 per cent claim applications in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra when the claim applications filed was disproportionately higher than the official death figures.

According to official figures, an estimated 5.17 lakh people have so far died because of the pandemic in the country. However, several studies have suggested the actual count could be many times higher.

The bench reserved its orders after conclusion of argument on fixing a time limit for Covid related claims.

The apex court had earlier recorded an undertaking from the Centre and states that a compensation of Rs 50,000 each would be paid to the families of those who had died because of the pandemic.

The court had passed the directions while dealing with a PIL filed by an advocate, Gaurav Bansal, seeking compensation for all Covid-related deaths.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta informed the bench during the hearing that the Centre had filed an application seeking permission for a court-authorised central agency to scrutinise the documents submitted for compensation in different states.

He said it may not be practical for the Centre and states to recheck all the claims entertained so far. Instead, Mehta said the exercise can be conducted on a random basis to weed out bogus applications.

Senior advocate R. Basant, appearing for Kerala and Andhra Pradesh governments, suggested that state legal services authorities, which are headed by district judges, can be entrusted with the job of conducting random scrutiny of the compensation claims.

The court reserved its verdict and said appropriate orders would be passed on Wednesday.

Booster dose

The government is considering a Covid vaccine booster for everyone above 18 years in view of a surge in infections in several parts of the world and to ease difficulties faced during international travel, sources said on Monday.

Currently, healthcare and frontline workers and those above 60 years are being administered booster doses.

Additional reporting by PTI