'Ladki Bahin Yojana' a beneficiary scheme for women, not discriminatory: HC
Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Monday said the Maharashtra government's 'Ladki Bahin Yojana' is a beneficiary scheme for women and cannot be said to be discriminatory.
A division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by city-based Chartered Accountant Naveed Abdul Saeed Mulla, seeking to quash the scheme.
The bench said in what manner the government has to frame a scheme is out of the "judicial purview".
"It is a policy decision, so we cannot interfere unless there is violation of any fundamental rights," the court said.
The bench dismissed the PIL but said it was not imposing any cost on the petitioner.
Under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, which was announced in the state budget, Rs 1,500 is slated to be transferred into the bank accounts of eligible women in the age group of 21 to 65 years whose family income was less than Rs 2.5 lakh.
The PIL claimed the scheme was politically motivated and was actually a "freebie", introduced by the government to "bribe voters".
The petitioner's advocate, Owais Pechkar, argued that taxpayers' money should not be used for such schemes.
The HC bench, however, questioned if the court could fix the priorities of schemes for the government.
The petitioner has to differentiate between a freebie and a social welfare scheme, it said.
"Can we (court) fix priorities of the government? Do not invite us into the political thicket...although it may be tempting for us," CJ Upadhyaya said.
"Every decision of the government of the day is political," he added.
The bench said as a court it cannot ask the government to introduce one scheme or the other.
Pechkar claimed the scheme discriminated among women as only those who earned less than Rs 2.5 lakh per year were eligible for its benefit.
To this, the HC questioned how could a woman earning Rs 2.5 lakh per annum be compared to one earning Rs 10 lakh per year.
"This is a beneficiary scheme for some women. How is it discrimination? Some woman earning Rs 10 lakh and another woman earning 2.5 lakh...do they fall under the same class or group? Equality has to be pleaded among equals. There is no discrimination," the HC said.
Some women earning less than others do not fall under the same group, hence "this kind of discrimination is permissible," it said.
The court said the scheme was introduced after a budgetary process.
"Allocation of funds for the scheme has been made in a budget. Budget-making is a legislative process. Can court interfere?" CJ Upadhyaya asked.
The bench said even if personally speaking it agrees with the petitioner, it cannot interfere legally.
"This is a welfare scheme targeting certain sections of society which for some reason is in a disadvantageous position. These are social welfare measures," the court said.
The petition had claimed that through the impugned government scheme "an additional burden is put on direct and indirect taxpayers/exchequers as the taxes are collected for infrastructure development and not for irrational cash schemes."
"Such kind of cash benefit scheme was synonym to bribery or gift to voters of certain class to vote in favour of a certain candidate on behalf of parties in the present coalition government contesting in the upcoming state assembly elections," the petition said.
It claimed such scheme was against provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951 and amounted to "corrupt practice".
The PIL further claimed the scheme for women would cost around Rs 4,600 crore, and it is a "huge burden on the debt-ridden state of Maharashtra which is already in debt of Rs 7.8 lakh crore and therefore, same be quashed and set aside".
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Duleep Trophy: Pacers shine as India B beat India A by 76 runs
Bengaluru, Sep 8: KL Rahul's gumption, which helped him pile a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers led by Yash Dayal pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday.
Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack.
Rahul top-scored for 'A' with a 51.
In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.
The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.
That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.
Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.
Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former's bat in just 18 balls.
But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag's bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.
Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.
Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.
They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.
However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.
The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.
But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.
It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3x4, 4x6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.
But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.
Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.
Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).
The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
