CHENNAI: A writ petition filed before the Madras High Court by a woman from Tiruvannamalai district prayed the Court to scrap the scheme as it contravened Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
She also urged the Court to quash a GO dated June 14, 2010, which introduced the 'Kalaignar Veedu Vazhangum Thittam' (Kalaignar Housing Scheme) in the State.
The scheme framed by the State government was 'totally unworkable, illusory, absolutely arbitrary and ridiculous and it was being introduced with the sole intention of garnering votes during the ensuing Assembly election,' Vedavalli of Vengikkal village in Tiruvannamalai district said in her writ petition.
When the petition came up before Justice P Jyothimani on January 28, the special government pleader took notice and sought time to file counter. And the judge posted the matter for further hearing on February 4.
Vedavalli, a destitute woman, who was also entitled to benefits from the scheme, contended that dividing the beneficiaries, ie the hutment dwellers, on a community basis was impermissible. An enumeration revealed that 41.5 per cent of the hutment dwellers were MBCs, 31.2 per cent SCs, 23.8 per cent BCs, 2.8 per cent STs and 0.7 per cent OCs.
Irrational classification of persons sharing the same status offended Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. The only yardstick could be the poverty of the beneficiaries, the petition said. It added that allowing the scheme to be implemented in prohibited holdings such as water bodies and poromboke lands would go against rulings of the High Court and the Supreme Court.