In a major setback to Kerala’s Left Democratic Front government on its populist `2 kg rice scheme, the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed its extension to all ration card holders in the state, accepting the Election Commission’s plea that it disturbed the delicate balance of “level play” in the electoral process.
As the Kerala high court had given its go-ahead to the LDF government’s February 25 decision, extending the scheme to all ration card holders subject to certain conditions, benefiting around four million people, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph, in an interim direction, stayed the high court order.
The court found weight in the arguments of Kerala government counsel L. Nageshwar Rao that the EC, neither under Articles 324, 327 and 328 of the Constitution, from where it draws its powers, nor under the Representation of the People Act, had any authority to stall implementation of welfare schemes if announced well before the poll dates were announced, but admitted the EC’s petition for detailed hearing to determine the correct legal position on the matter.
The bench issued notices to the Kerala government and the main petitioner before the high court, Rajaji Mathew Thomas, to file affidavits in four weeks.
The court stayed the high court order after EC counsel Ashok Desai made a forceful plea that the commission was not against extension of the `2 kg rice scheme to other sections of society as such, but only wanted its deferment for two months till the elections were over. The state’s counsel, meanwhile, claimed 75 per cent of new beneficiaries had already been covered till date.
The EC counsel said: “We are not against the scheme, but on the timing of its announcement as it violates the model code of conduct, evolved with the agreement of all political parties. The code clearly provides the party in power does not sanction any fund, scheme, financial grant, lay foundation of any scheme, announce any project at least three weeks before pending elections.”