Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday issued notice to Tamil Nadu government to respond within two weeks on a petition filed against distribution of freebies, promised by ruling AIADMK in its election manifesto.
A division bench, consisting of Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice M Venugopal, issued a direction in this regard to the government.
The petitioner S Subramaniam Balaji contended that distribution of freebies, including grinders, mixies, fans, laptops, four grams of gold for 'mangalsutra' and 20 kgs of rice to ration card holders as "ultra vires the provisions of articles 14, 41, 162, 266 (3) and 282 of the Constitution and section 123 (1) of epresentation of People's Act, 1951."
The petitioner contended that freebies would be a heavy burden on the state economy, which the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had stated was in doldrums.
"The Chief Minister has stated that the financial position of the state is precarious and the total debt of Tamil Nadu has exceeded Rs 1, 45,000 crore. The present package of intended free distribution would add another Rs 1, 00,000 crore to be paid out of the exchequer in five years," he contended.
Balaji said "there was no constitutional mandate to make these free distributions", and contended that Comptroller and Auditor General of India has been a "passive spectator" in Tamil Nadu when the funds allotted by the Centre for welfare schemes have been "unconstitutionally and illegally misappropriated" by the government of Tamil Nadu during the previous DMK regime.
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