Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, before whom the plea by one CV Hari Krishna came up on Wednesday, seeking ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh for the death of his father owing to COVID-19, ordered notice to both the authorities as well as the District Collector, Kancheepuram, before posting the plea for further hearing to February 4.

The petitioner’s counsel Kabilan Manoharan had submitted that the State had failed to discharge its obligation toward the petitioner under Disaster Management Act, 2005, which prescribes Minimum Standards of Relief to families of those deceased and hospitalised due to the pandemic.

It was also pointed out that despite the application seeking the statutory relief being submitted on August 6, the administration is yet to respond or come forward to make the prescribed payment. This is despite the Supreme Court clarifying that the guidelines meant for making such payment under Minimum Standards of Relief will be applicable for COVID-19 deaths also.

“This non-payment has to be construed as a refusal as the same has not been paid to any of the preceding COVID-19 death cases beginning from the first death reported in the State (in Madurai) as early as March 25 and 3,070 deaths before the petitioner’s father and 11,703 deaths reported until November 29. Likewise, even after 7,80,505 reported cases of COVID-19 (as on November 29) hospitalisation (including isolation), none of them has been paid,” the plea said.

The plea also claimed that since the Tamil Nadu SDMA is yet to lay down guidelines in this regard as required under Section 19 of the Act, the guidelines recommended by the NDMA under Section 12 would form the ‘Minimum’ Standards of Relief to be provided to persons affected by the disaster under which COVID-19 also falls.