The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a plea to declare the implementation of direct cash transfer schemes such as the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, by “parties in power” in the Centre and six States immediately before or during polls as “illegal and unconstitutional” and contrary to the “right of equal participation of each citizen in polity.”
A Bench led by Justice S.A. Bobde issued the notice on a writ petition filed by Pentapati Pulla Rao, represented by senior advocate Santosh Pal and advocate Sravan Kumar. Mr. Rao was a contestant from the Eluru Parliamentary constituency in Andhra Pradesh on behalf of the JanaSena Party in the recent general election.
Mr. Rao has arraigned, besides the ECI, the Centre and States Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand as respondents in the petition. He alleged that these States had done cash transactions to sections of voters under various direct cash transfer schemes during or just before the polls.
Besides the PM kisan scheme, the schemes mentioned in the petition are Pasupu Kumkuma, NTR Atmabandhu, Rytu Bandhu, KALIA and Mukhya Mantri Krishi Yojana.
The plea sought the court to direct the ECI to take appropriate action under Article 324 of Constitution and Section 123 of the Representation of People Act on direct cash transfer of Rs. 4000 to 94 lakh women voters on April 5, 2019, i.e., six days prior to polling; cash transfer of Rs. 5000 to 54 lakh farmers/voters on April, 2019, i.e., two days prior to polling day by the then Andhra Pradesh government to benefit party in power in the State.
The petition asked the court to direct the ECI to fix a “minimum time preferably six months to implement schemes which have impact on free and fair elections such as freebies, direct cash transfer schemes, welfare schemes, etc, by political parties in power before announcement of the election schedule.”
It said, “Petitioner witnessed the ground situation in regard to misuse of public money to bribe the voters in the name of following schemes in Andhra Pradesh on the eve of general election.”
‘Court directions not implemented’
The ECI and the Union of India had failed to implement the directions by the Supreme Court for fair polls and the “parties in power at Centre and States have distributed direct cash to women, farmers, students,” it said.
It alleged that the Union of India initiated a huge money distribution scheme, namely the PM kisans scheme, by way of Direct Benefit (Cash) Transfer (DBT). This scheme proposed to transfer Rs. 6000 to 12.50 crore farmers. To implement it, Rs. 20,000 crore was allocated in the 2018-19 Budget and further Rs. 75,000 crore allocated in the 2019-20 annual Budget, the petition said.
The ruling party in Telangana had “motivated other parties in power in Union of India, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to introduce similar direct cash transfer schemes before the elections to get electoral advantage over the Opposition parties with the public money,” it said.
“This is the gross violation of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which denies the equal participation for all the citizens in polity,” it said.