Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday said ex-gratia compensation for the kin of COVID-19 victims was a matter of right and they must not be deprived of it. A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik directed the Maharashtra government to take instructions on why claims for compensation filed through post or physically were being denied or delayed.
It was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a local organisation, Prameya Welfare Foundation, seeking among other things, a direction to the state government to not insist that citizens apply for such compensation online only, and give compensation to those who are applying physically or by post.
The petitioner's counsel Sumedha Rao told HC many of those submitting claims were slum dwellers or poor people who were not adept at filing and annexing documents online.
The BMC counsel told HC the civic body had, so far, received 34,000 applications seeking compensation, of which 16,884 applications had been forwarded to the disaster management department for approval and payment.
The rest had some issues such as incomplete addresses, missing information etc, while those applications that had come from areas outside BMC jurisdiction were being forwarded to relevant authorities.
Rao, however, told HC the applicants were not being given reasons for rejection of their applications nor were they being informed of the status of their applications.