Telangana HC Stays 'Kalyana Lakshmi', 'Shaadi Mubarak' Schemes; Payments To Beneficiaries Halted

Hyderabad: Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued interim orders to stay the eight government orders (GOs) related to 'Kalyana Lakshmi' and 'Shadi Mubarak' schemes issued since 2014. It clarified that no payments should be made to the beneficiaries based on these GOs.

Advocate Vijay Gopal filed a petition in the high court in his personal capacity, challenging these GOs. After hearing the petitioner, Justice N V Shravan Kumar said that the GOs issued for the implementation of these schemes are not constitutional.

The petition challenged the validity of these schemes introduced in 2014 to provide financial assistance to unmarried women belonging to SC, ST and minority communities. Later, the schemes were extended to Backward Classes and Economically Backward Classes. It claimed that the schemes are being implemented without any legal provision. There is no clarity on what basis the eligibility criteria, including income limit, were decided, the petition added.

"Spending huge amounts of government funds for the implementation of these schemes is unconstitutional. It is not valid for the executive branch to formulate policies. According to Article 246, only Parliament and the legislature have the power to make laws. The executive branch cannot have those powers and formulate policies," the petition stated.

Any decision for the development of any community should be taken within the legislative jurisdiction but these GOs were issued only for political purposes, the petition stated.

According to the details obtained through the Right to Information, more than Rs 13,000 crores have been spent on these schemes since 2014, the petitioner explained.

The court observed that during the last hearing, the Advocate General said that he would file a counter-affidavit on the legal approvals. Since no counter-affidavit has been filed and the government lawyer is seeking more time, the judge granted a stay on the eight GOs along with halting payments to the beneficiaries.

The government has been ordered to file its counter-affidavit and the next hearing has been scheduled on September 9.

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