Supreme Court Seeks Responses From Rajasthan, MP Govts Over 'Misuse Of Public Money' On Poll Freebies

The Supreme Court was initially reluctant to take up the matter, saying it was not possible to control all kinds of poll sops made by the governments before elections.

Supreme Court of India

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments over sops and freebies being doled out ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, news agency PTI reported. Taking up a PIL alleging misuse of public money, the top court directed the Centre and the Election Commission to file responses in the matter.

The apex court was initially reluctant to take up the matter, saying it was not possible to control all kinds of poll sops made by the governments before elections.

“Before elections, all kinds of promises are made and we cannot control this,” Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, reported PTI.

Lawyer Varinder Kumar Sharma, appearing for the petitioner, said the plea was related to freebies being doled out in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

“There can be nothing more atrocious than the government distributing cash before the polls. This is happening every time and the burden is on the taxpayers ultimately,” PTI quoted Sharma as saying.

According to the report, the top court asked the lawyer to delete the MP chief minister’s office from the memo of parties and replace it with state government, which is to be represented through chief secretary.

The Supreme Court bench also ordered the clubbing of the plea filed by Bhattulal Jain, with an earlier pending case filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay. The previous case was on the issue of election freebies and it was referred to a three-judge bench in August last year.

The petition sought a direction to the state governments and others to not “misuse” the consolidated funds citing “public purposes” ahead of assembly polls, PTI reported.

“Issue a writ... to direct and declare that the promise/ distribution of irrational freebies from the public fund before election to lure voters is analogous to the bribery and undue influence under Section 171-B and Section 171-C of the IPC (punishment for bribery),” Bhattulal Jain said in his plea.