CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has dismissed a PIL seeking to halt the Odisha government’s flagship welfare schemes Subhadra Yojana and Mukhyamantri Kanya Bibaha Yojana, holding that policy decisions aimed at the welfare of women cannot be interfered with unless they violate constitutional or statutory provisions.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Chittaranjan Dash rejected the petition filed by a 78-year-old Cuttack-based advocate Ramanta Nayak, who argued the case in person. Nayak had contended that
the two schemes involved massive expenditure from the state’s Consolidated Fund in violation of Article 266 of the Constitution and lacked adequate legislative sanction.
Rejecting the contention, the bench said the petitioner had wrongly perceived the scope of Article 266. The constitutional provision merely regulates withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund in accordance with law and does not prohibit the government from spending on lawful welfare programmes. The web copy of the order was released on Friday.
The bench underlined that governments are constitutionally expected to make special provisions for women and children to address social and economic inequalities. Referring to the Subhadra Yojana, it held that the scheme was conceived as a flagship policy to financially empower women, provide them with a social safety net and strengthen their overall socioeconomic status.
It also pointed out that the scheme contains clearly defined eligibility and ineligibility criteria, ensuring that benefits are extended only to qualified beneficiaries.
On the Mukhyamantri Kanya Bibaha Yojana, the bench observed that the government had introduced the marriage assistance scheme to address social barriers and economic hardships faced by families in marrying off daughters. The programme seeks to promote social change until regressive practices and conservative mindsets are eliminated, it stated.
Coming down heavily on the petitioner, the bench said, “A litigation of such nature is not only fanciful but having a latent objective of gaining popularity. PILs cannot be used as tools to pursue sinister objectives.”
