New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday (January 20) refused to urgently hear a plea against election promise of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) promising of paying a monthly stipend of Rs 2,100 to women in the national capital under the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana.
Justice Jyoti Singh dismissed the plea seeking an “early disposal” of the petition, which is listed for hearing on January 30, observing there was no ground to allow the request.
AAP was still publicising the scheme to attract voters, petitioner submitted
The counsel representing the petitioner urged the High Court to hear the petition urgently, stating that the AAP was still publicising the scheme to attract voters for the Delhi assembly polls.
No ground is made out: High Court
The High Court, however, said that no ground is made out for early disposal of the petition.
“The matter was passed over three times on the last date (January 10) but the petitioner was unrepresented. No ground for hearing is made out. Dismissed,” the High Court held, news agency PTI reported.
The High Court had on January 10 deferred the hearing on the plea to January 30 after no one appeared on behalf of the petitioner despite the matter being called out thrice.
Earlier, the High Court questioned the petitioner on the maintainability of his petition being filed as an “election petition”.
What did the petitioner’s counsel submit earlier?
The counsel representing the petitioner – one Vijay Kumar – earlier told the High Court that the petitioner had filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) on January 3 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 told the High Court said that that no action had been taken on the complaint filed by him and urged the court to direct the poll body to expeditiously dispose of his complaint dated January 3, saying that Delhi’s women voters would be affected if the complaint was not decided.
What is the scheme?
Former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal announced the roll out of a scheme of the Delhi government on December 12 last year 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 Delhi government’s Women and Child Development and Health departments on December 25 last year issued public notices, terming the scheme as non-existent and also cautioning 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”.
