New Delhi, Jan 20: The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to urgently hear a plea against the AAP’s poll promise of a monthly stipend of Rs 2,100 to women under the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana scheme in the national capital.
Justice Jyoti Singh dismissed the plea for an “early disposal” of the petition, listed on January 30, observing there was no ground to allow the request.
“The matter was passed over three times on the last date but the petitioner was unrepresented. No ground for hearing is made out. Dismissed,” the court held.
The petitioner’s counsel urged the court to hear the petition urgently as AAP was still publicising the scheme to attract voters.
Delhi goes to polls on February 5 with counting scheduled on February 8.
On January 10, the court deferred hearing the petition to month end after no one appeared on the petitioner’s behalf despite the matter being called out thrice.
The court had questioned the petitioner, one Vijay Kumar, on the maintainability of his plea being filed as an “election petition”.
The petitioner said AAP was luring voters with a false announcement as Delhi government had already denied having such a scheme.
Advocate Shiv Shankar Parashar, the petitioner’s counsel, said his client filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India over the alleged false announcement by the ruling party in Delhi to pay a Rs 2,100 monthly stipend to women having Delhi voter IDs.
Claiming no action was taken, he urged the court to direct the election commission to expeditiously dispose of his complaint filed on January 3.
The plea also sought a direction to the chief electoral officer to stop further filling of forms related to the scheme by AAP workers.
On December 12, 2024, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal announced the roll out of the Delhi government’s scheme and promised to raise the monthly aid from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,100 if the party returned to power.
On December 25, however, Delhi government’s Women and Child Development and Health departments issued public notices, not only distancing themselves from the scheme but also the promise of free treatment for the elderly, triggering a fresh row ahead of the assembly polls.
The two departments cautioned people against providing personal details to anyone on the pretext of registering for what they termed as “non-existent” schemes and said any private individual or political party collecting such physical forms or information was “fraudulent and without any authority”. (PTI)
