Supreme Court Issues Notice In Plea Seeking Formulation Of National Level Plan For Rehabilitation Of CoVID 19 Affected Families

The Supreme Court today issued notice in a writ petition seeking formulation and preparation of National Level Plan in tandem with the State Government to ensure rehabilitation of families destroyed by CoVID 19 pandemic.

The petition which also sought for waiver of education fees for students who have lost their parents due to outbreak of CoVID was listed before the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna.

"There are various news reports of kids being orphaned due to untimely demise of their parents and the State needs to take urgent adequate steps to alleviate the hardships of the families and overall welfare of the orphan children. There is an imminent apprehension that many students would have been deprived of their education due to non-payment of fees caused by sudden demise of their parents due to CoVID 19 pandemic. Further there could be huge displacement of families in case banks and financial institutions take legal recourse against the families who have lost their sole bread earner due to the present pandemic," the petition states.

It has been argued that the circumstances caused by the second wave of CoVID 19 pandemic has heavily impacted everyone and created a huge financial crisis.

The petitioner in the petition has contended that there would be cases where they have taken home loans or some other form of personal loads and due to sudden demise, the entire family would be put to burden with no means to earn and lack of jobs.

Relying on the schemes pronounced by the Madhya Pradesh Government (Mukhya Mantri CoVID 19 Anukampa Niyukti Yojana) and Delhi Government with regards to the kins of CoVID 19 families, the petitioner has contended that the schemes are only limited for Government Employees/ officials on Government duties and not other residents of the States.

"The same should include all the members of the States," the petition states.

Furthermore, relief has also been sought for directing the Ministry of Finance, Central and State Government to restrain banks and other financial institutions not to take any measures against the families who have lost their sole earning member due to CoVID 19 pandemic.

Relief for issuing directions for securing financial and insurance assistance to minimise hardships for children and families affected from Covid 19 has also been sought.

The petition has been filed through Advocate on Record Rajesh Kumar Chaurasia.

Case Title: Sudhir Kumar Kathpalia v Union of India| WP (C) 597/2021

Click Here To Read/Download Order