Supreme Court directs Centre to add suicides of Covid positive patients in list of Covid deaths

The Supreme Court directed Union Government to reconsider its guidelines in which suicides from Covid-19 has been excluded from death certificates. Justice M.R. Shah mentioned that it is prima facie of the view that such suicide cases of Covid positive patients be treated as Covid deaths. The Centre has said that it would definitely re-examine the issue. Apart from this, the Court has said that there are some other issues in the guidelines that the government needs to reconsider.

The division bench led by Justice M.R. Shah and Justice A.S. Bopanna expressed satisfaction with the Centre’s decision on Covid-19 death certificates for granting compensation but said 3-4 issues need to be sorted out including that of suicides of Covid positive patients which needed to be brought within the Covid ambit.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta have been given the responsibility for full implementation of directions issued by the court. The next hearing of this case is scheduled on September 23. Union Government had filed a detailed affidavit before the Supreme Court in regard to issuance of Covid-19 death certificates. The Centre had informed Supreme Court that the Health ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have prepared guidelines for issuing an “official document” for Covid-related deaths.