BENGALURU: Acting on a public interest litigation challenging the legality of the Chief Minister’s Infrastructure Development Program (CMIDP), through which Rs 50 crore was allocated to the legislative Assembly constituencies represented by the MLAs from the ruling party and Rs 25 crore to the constituencies represented by the MLAs from the opposition party, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the State government.
A division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C M Poonacha passed the order after hearing the petition filed by Jagadeesh Shivayya Gudagunti, MLA, representing the BJP from Jamkhandi Assembly Constituency in Bagalkote.
The notice was issued by the court to the Principal Secretary of the Finance Department and the Deputy Commissioner of Bagalkote.
The petitioner stated that the scheme of the distribution of funds from CMIDP is a provision provided in the State Budget 2025-26, which was launched with Rs 8,000 crore investment to ensure balanced development across the state, focusing on minor irrigation, roads and urban infrastructure in all legislative assembly constituencies of the state.
The budget provision does not discriminate between the constituencies represented by the MLAs from the ruling party or from the opposition parties. The Directive Principles of the State Policy under Article 38(2) of the Constitution of India mandate that the State shall try to eliminate the inequalities in the facilities and opportunities amongst the groups of people residing in different areas.
Thus, the distribution of public funds based on the identity of the political party of the MLAs representing each constituency will be in violation of Article 14 and the Directive Principles of State Policies under Articles 38 and 39 of the Constitution, the petitioner alleged.
It was alleged in the petition that in India, there is no law enabling or permitting the distribution of public funds based on the identity of the political parties that the MLAs represent in each constituency. Therefore, the unequal distribution of public funds from the CMIDP based on the classification of the political parties is unconstitutional.
The petitioner stated that the other constituencies in Bagalkot district, such as Mudhol, Bilagi, Badami, Bagalkot and Hunagund, which stand on the same footing as that of Jamkhandi Assembly constituency, are allocated Rs 50 crore from the CMIDP only for the reason that those constituencies are represented by MLAs of the ruling party and Jamkhandi constituency is represented by the petitioner-MLA, who belongs to the opposition party, for which Rs 25 crore was allocated.
This will create inequality in facilities and opportunities created using such funds. The fate of other constituencies in the state is similar.
