Consider Suicides As COVID Deaths If COVID Was Accompanying Condition : Supreme Court To Centre

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to revisit its decision of not including death by suicide as Covid- 19 death even if COVID-19 is an accompanying condition.A bench comprising Justices MR Shah and AS Bopanna was considering the fresh guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to simplify the process of issuance of death certificates, as per the directions in the judgment delivered on June 30.As per the said guidelines, deaths occurring due to poisoning, suicide, homicide and deaths due to accident, among others, will not be considered as COVID-19 deaths even if COVID- 19 is an accompanying condition.These guidelines were placed on record before the Supreme Court through a compliance affidavit filed on September 11."We've gone through your counter and it seems to be okay. However there are 2/3 things that we want to point out", Justice Shah told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta."What about the persons who committed suicide while they were suffering from Corona?", Justice Shah asked. The judge said that exclusion of suicides where COVID was an accompanying condition cannot be prima facie be accepted. "You have to re-consider this", Justice Shah told the SG.The bench also raised the following other queries : Implementation of the policy by states with regards to the guidelines issued by the CentreTimeline for constitution of Committee for redressal of grievances regarding death certificates Documents to be submitted by the family members before the Committee Documents that are to be provided by the concerned Hospitals The Bench has also asked Centre to also look into the certificates that have been issued already and the remedy that would be available to the family members in case they have disputes with regards to the cause of death. The Top Court has also asked the Union to apprise the Court about the compliance with respect to the guidelines that are to be issued by the National Disaster Management Authority for determination of compensation. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured that the guidelines for determination of compensation would be in place before the next date of hearing which is September 23, 2021. The bench was hearing a contempt petition filed seeking compliance of the June 30 judgment which directed framing of guidelines for the grant of compensation for people who died due to COVID and issuance of death certificates for them(Gaurav Bansal v.Union of India). "We have gone through a compliance report submitted by the Union of India. On reading the compliance report, it appears that there are some issues that are to be considered & re- considered & there are some creases that are to be ironed out. For full implementation of directions issued by this court, the issues that are to be re-considered have been told to SG. To get the response on aforesaid issues, list it on September 23. Mr Mehta, the learned Solicitor General, has also submitted that so far as other directions, namely the guidelines that are to be issued for determining compensation u/s 12 of the DM Act as laid down Para 16(1) shall also be complied with within the next date of hearing", the bench stated in the order. The Supreme Court on September 3 had directed the Union Government to show compliance by September 11 to the judicial directions passed on June 30 to frame guidelines to simplify the process for issuance of death certificates with respect to those who died due to COVID-19. Pursuant to Court's direction the Central Government in its compliance affidavit told the Supreme Court that it had framed guidelines to simplify the process of the issuance of COVID-19 death certificates in compliance with the directions in the judgment passed on June 30. The affidavit had also stated that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Indian Council for Medical Research had jointly issued guidelines on September 3 for issuance of an "official document" on COVID-19 deaths. It was also submitted in the affidavit that the Office of the Registrar General of India ("ORGI") has issued a circular on 3rd September, 2021 to provide a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death to the next of kin of the deceased. What was the Supreme Court's verdict?The directions were issued by a bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah in the judgment delivered on June 30 in the cases Gaurav Kumar Bansal vs Union of India and Reepak Kansal vs Union of India and Others.The bench had made it clear that a death certificate issued in respect of a COVID fatality must clearly specify the cause of death as COVID itself. Also, if a person has died due to any other complications or disease due to COVID, then also the death certificate should specifically mention the cause of death as COVID."In the death certificate also, if a person has died due to Covid-19 and/or any other complications/disease due to Covid-19, ...

Consider Suicides As COVID Deaths If COVID Was Accompanying Condition : Supreme Court To Centre

Shruti Kakkar

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