LI Network
Published on: 20 September 2023 at 16:23 IST
The Rajasthan High Court has issued notices to the state government, seeking a response regarding the legality of issuing guarantee cards for smartphones instead of the devices in the second phase of the Indira Gandhi Smartphone Scheme.
A division bench comprising justices Vijay Bishnoi and Yogendra Kumar Purohit issued these notices while responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that challenged the validity and appropriateness of the Planning Department’s “order” to distribute “Smartphone with Internet Connectivity Guarantee Cards” to women heads of approximately one crore Chiranjeevi Card holder families, with a budget allocation of Rs 2,500 crore.
The court has requested a reply from the state government regarding the rationality, proportionality, and legality of distributing guarantee cards for smartphones instead of the smartphones themselves in the second phase of the scheme.
The “order” declared that in the second phase of the Indira Gandhi Smartphone Scheme, women would receive smartphones free of charge by presenting the guarantee cards.
The first phase of the scheme involved the distribution of 40 lakh smartphones, as mentioned in the petition filed by Mudit Nagpal.
In his petition, Nagpal has urged the court to declare the “order” issued on August 21 as illegal and have it quashed or set aside.
The petition contends that the decision to distribute smartphone guarantee cards has been made without considering the social and economic backgrounds of Chiranjeevi Card holder families. It further alleges that this decision reflects a political agenda with an eye on the upcoming Rajasthan assembly elections.
Questioning the scheme’s stated objective as a women empowerment initiative, the petition argues that the implementation of the scheme indicates the absence of essential elements of a welfare activity.
Devki Nandan Vyas, one of the petitioner’s counsel, stated, “We have also requested that the government be restrained from distributing the smartphone guarantee cards as it is beyond the jurisdiction of the planning department and falls outside the scope of power defined under the Rajasthan Rules of Business.”
The petition also highlights that there was no approval for this scheme in the State Budget and Appropriation Act, nor was any financial sanction obtained before issuing the order.
Given the state’s significant financial crisis, the petitioner expresses concerns that the government’s decision to incur a substantial liability through the guarantee card scheme will be at the expense of taxpayers. The high court has scheduled the next hearing on this matter for October 5.