New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday (January 9) raised questioned on the maintainability of a plea filed against the recent poll promise made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in which it promised of paying a monthly stipend to women in the national capital under the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana.
Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a petition filed by one Vijay Kumar alleging the AAP of luring voters with a false promise as the Delhi government has already denied existence of the said scheme and seeking a direction to the chief electoral officer to stop further filling of forms related to the said scheme by AAP workers.
How an election petition was maintainable on the issue, High Court asked
The court questioned the petitioner that how an election petition was maintainable on the issue and asked the petitioner to address submissions on the maintainability of the petition.
“How is it maintainable as an election petition? You go and file a PIL (Public Interest Litigation),” the court said, news agency PTI reported.
What did the petitioner’s counsel submit?
The counsel representing the petitioner said that the petitioner had filed a complaint on January 3 with the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the alleged false announcement made by the AAP to pay a Rs 2,100 monthly stipend to women having Delhi voter IDs. The counsel further said that that no action has been taken on the complaint and urged the court to direct the poll body to expeditiously dispose of his complaint, saying that the women voters of the national capital would be affected if the complaint was not decided.
The court has posted the matter for hearing on January 10.
What did Kejriwal announce?
Former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on December 12 last year announced the roll out of a scheme of the Delhi government and promised to raise the monthly aid under the scheme from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,100 if the AAP returned to power.
However, the Women and Child Development and Health department of the Delhi government on December 25 issued public notices and termed the scheme as non-existent and also cautioned people against providing their personal details to anyone on the pretext of registering for the said scheme. It further said that any private individual or political party collecting such physical forms or information for the said scheme was “fraudulent and without any authority”.
