SC lens on freebies ahead of polls in MP, Rajasthan

Freebies being doled out by the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments ahead of the assembly polls Friday came under scrutiny by the Supreme Court which sought responses from the two states, the Centre and the Election Commission on a PIL alleging misuse of public money.

The top court, which was initially reluctant to consider the plea and asked as to how it can control all kinds of promises made by the respective governments before elections, later agreed to take it up.

”Before elections, all kinds of promises are made and we cannot control this,”  a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, and asked as to why the plea was not filed in the high court.

”There can be nothing more atrocious than the government distributing cash before the polls. This is happening every time and the burden is on the taxpayers ultimately,” lawyer Varinder Kumar Sharma, appearing for the petitioner, said.

He also said the plea pertained to grant of freebies in two states.

”Issue notice. Returnable in four weeks,” the bench said and asked the lawyer to delete the Madhya Pradesh chief minister's office from the memo of parties and replace it with the state government, to be represented through the chief secretary.

The bench then ordered clubbing the petition, filed by Bhattulal Jain, with an earlier pending case filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay on the issue of election freebies  that was referred to a three-judge bench in August 2022.

The plea sought a direction to state governments and others to not misuse consolidated funds or grant under the ruse of the public purposes ahead of assembly elections.

”Issue a writ... to direct and declare that the promise/ distribution of irrational freebies from the public fund before election to lure voters is analogous to the bribery and undue influence under Section 171-B and Section 171-C of the IPC (punishment for bribery),” Jain said in his petition.

The plea also sought framing of comprehensive guidelines to deal with the announcements made by chief ministers which have financial repercussions.

It referred to an RBI report to claim the economy of Madhya Pradesh was distressed.

"No government can declare free electricity, free water or loan waiver without the approval of the legislative assembly, irrespective of which government is ruling. Since the money belongs to our taxpayers, they have the right to monitor its use", the petition said.