NEW DELHI, July 27 (Live Law): The Supreme Court on Tuesday made an oral observation that the the welfare schemes for orphans, such as the one announced under the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund(PM CARES Fund), should cover all children who became orphans during COVID-19, and not just those who got orphaned due to COVID.

The counsel representing the Centre informed the Court that the PM CARES scheme covers children who have lost both parents, or the lone surviving parent or the legal guardian or the adoptive parent.

However, a bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose observed that the scheme, which contemplates a corpus of Rs 10 lakhs for orphans by the time they turn 23 years, is covering only children who became orphans on account of losing parents during the COVID period. The bench pointed out its suo motu case is dealing with children who became orphans after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.