Supreme Court (Photo | EPS)
Supreme Court (Photo | EPS)

Supreme Court takes tricky road to reining in freebie culture

Judicial enthusiasm to contain irrational freebies appears to have blossomed at the fag end of the career of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana. He does not have the tenure to see it through.

Judicial enthusiasm to contain irrational freebies appears to have blossomed at the fag end of the career of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana. He does not have the tenure to see it through. The trajectory of the petition after the CJI retires in two weeks would be interesting to watch. However, the question of freebies has exercised judicial minds since decades.

In 2013, a SC bench saw no merit in a petition challenging the DMK promise of free TV sets in Tamil Nadu, accepting the party’s argument that they were meant to provide information to the beneficiaries and not just entertainment. That was when the SC also said such questions ought to be debated in the legislature and not the court. But the present Ramana bench has little trust in letting Parliament take the call, observing as it did that all political parties have a vested interest in dangling freebie carrots. It is instead trying to set up an expert panel comprising all stakeholders to go into the matter.

That the Sri Lankan economy’s sinking is tied to the ruling party foregoing revenue by implementing its irrational promise of slashing taxes is well understood. Also, quite a few states in India have unsustainable debt, so loading their economies with further handouts would be decidedly unwise. The Centre lit into the freebie culture, but can it deny that its annual payout of Rs 6,000 to each farmer, called the PM Krishi Samman Yojna Nidhi, is not a vote-catcher? It came at the height of the kisan unrest in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Was it ‘revadi’ or not? AAP’s free electricity scheme is a big hit, but has the potential to render electricity boards bankrupt. How does one classify it? However, Kejriwal linking corporate tax cuts with freebie curbs was disingenuous.

Judicially defining freebies is not easy, as the line separating them from welfare measures is rather thin. Caught in the vortex of fierce criticism, the Ramana bench was forced to clarify that welfare schemes and freebies are two different things. Without a clear differentiator, the Centre urging the SC to issue guidelines on freebies in the interregnum was avoidable.

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