Covid-19 survivors also entitled to compensation: lawyers

A medic stands with a patient, who is getting transferred to an ICU. File pic/AFP

After health experts, lawyers, too, feel that Covid-19 survivors should also be compensated, as the disease has been declared a pandemic under the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Act. The Supreme Court last month directed the Centre to decide an ex-gratia amount for the next of kin of Coronavirus victims.

Senior Advocate Dinesh Tiwari said the SC's judgment "doesn't delve into compensation for injury caused due to Covid-19." An injured victim here means a person who was diagnosed and treated for Covid-19. "With regards to injury, the SC judgment is silent, but as per the NDMA Act, the government is bound to pay for the damages to the injured."

"Sub-section (iii) of Section 12 of the NDMA Act, 2005 mandates that the National Authority [the NDMA] shall recommend guidelines for minimum standard of relief to persons affected by the disaster, which shall include ex-gratia assistance on account of loss of life and also assistance on account of damage to houses and for restoration of means of livelihood," said Floyd Gracias, Supreme Court counsel and Bombay High Court advocate. "The term ‘shall' indicates that it is a directive and not discretionary."

Rajeshwar Panchal, advocate

Advocate Rajeshwar Panchal said, "The country that claims to be a welfare country and is bound to take care of its citizens. The policy underlying the NDMA Act regarding compensation reflects the same. Even the Epidemic Diseases Act provides for paying compensation once the measures are taken to contain it. Obviously, both the Centre and state governments took lockdown measures under these two Acts. Hence, they are obligated to pay compensation, because the lockdowns adversely affected citizens' livelihood. There should be no denying about it." Panchal added, "Even Covid-19 survivors who spent a huge amount of money are entitled to compensation, once the pandemic has been declared and the NDMA Act has been applied. Even those who may not have been victims of the disease directly, but have been prevented from carrying out their livelihood because of the lockdown, are entitled to claim compensation under the Epidemic Diseases Act."

Advocate Godfrey Pimenta said, "There are many social security legislations both enacted by central and state governments. During natural calamities, like earthquake, storm, flooding, draughts, etc., they have been announcing ex-gratia payments to the affected victims. Under Section 12 of the NDMA Act, the persons affected by a disaster (pandemic) are entitled to medical cover, relief camps, food, drinking water, sanitation, ex-gratia payment for loss of lives, etc."

Pimenta added, "A compensation of R50 lakh promised to police personnel has not been disbursed yet. If the state government is unable to pay compensation, it should issue bonds that may be redeemable after 7 to 10 years, subject to payment of yearly interest to affected victims to mitigate their sufferings."

SC order on death certificate to help kin

Dr Santosh Bansode, head of the department, Emergency Medicine, Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai Central, said the SC order to mention ‘death due to Covid-19' on death certificates will help their kin avail the compensation. "Due to the pandemic, many patients lost their lives, and in most cases, we would write ‘Covid-19 pneumonia' on certificates, as it was the main cause of many deaths. Now, the SC has made it very simple for us with its order. We can simply write ‘death due to Covid-19' on certificates for patients who died of the respiratory disease or due to complications linked to it. It will also help their relatives avail benefits from various Covid-19 schemes of the government." This can also apply to Covid-19 survivors who die within two to three months of recovery, as per the SC order. "With time, we are coming across many post-Covid-19 complications in recovered citizens and sometimes they can be fatal." The Covid-19 death toll might also increase because of this, he said, adding, "If a patient comes in an emergency situation and dies of some disease, we will have to check if he had Covid-19 in the past three months. But we will have to decide if this event was a post-Covid-19 complication. This will be challenging, I feel. All doctors should be made aware about the possible post-recovery complications."