Delhi High Court seeks Centre's response on plea challenging provisions of PMGKY

New Delhi [India], April 25 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice to the Central Government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the constitutional validity of cash transfer under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana till March 26, 2020, in view of the financial hardships being faced by the poor people after the first nationwide lockdown was imposed.
The plea also sought direction from the respondents to conduct identification of the exercise for non-Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) account holders as well as non-Ujjwala subscribers eligible for the benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana package dated March 26, 2020 so as to extend the benefits thereof to such persons.
The Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla on Monday issued notice to the Union of India through the Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas and granted them eight-week time to file a response and listed the matters for October 20 for further hearing.
The petitioner Aakash Goel through Advocate Prashant Bhushan stated that the present challenge is limited to the Cash Transfers made under the PMGKY as a provision of Rs 20.40 crores to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) women account holders of Rs 500 per month for the next three months. The petition states that the grant of Rs 500 was limited only to PMJDY account holders.
Having an active PMJDY account is a pre-requisite for availing benefit of this ex-gratia amount announced by the Union Government however this criterion is exclusionary because crores of poor women do not possess an active PMJDY account, it states.
It also stated that the provision of free cylinders exclusively to customers Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) and the said scheme is manifestly arbitrary, exclusionary and discriminatory as it excludes from its ambit the below poverty line families who are not subscribers of the Ujjwala scheme that was introduced in 2016 and thereby is violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. (ANI)