NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments on a plea against the announcement of ‘distribution of freebies’ ahead of elections.
Seeking the responses of the plea which alleged that taxpayers’ monies are misused by the two state governments to lure voters, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud also issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission and the Reserve Bank of India.
“There can be nothing more atrocious than the government distributing cash before the polls,” the petitioners’ counsel argued before the bench also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
It also tagged the plea along with an earlier case of Advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay’s plea which raised the issue of election freebies.
In his plea, petitioner Bhattulal Jain submitted that the financial situation of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh is bad, as evidenced by the reports of the RBI, however, the Chief Ministers of these states have announced cash benefits a few months ahead of the assembly elections, which are due the end of this year.