SC seeks Centre's response over cancellation of 3 crore ration cards

Supreme Court on Wednesday termed the cancellation of around three crore ration cards that were not linked to Aadhaar card as “too serious”, and sought a response from the Central government and all states on the issue.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre and sought its response over a petition against the cancellation of 3 crore ration cards that were not linked to Aadhaar.

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The bench comprising of CJI SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian observed that the matter is too serious and as it involves Aadhaar, it would like to hear the centre's response. It also asked the Centre not to consider its adversarial litigation.

Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for the petitioner submitted before the court that the principal issue here is the cancellation of 3 crore cards and starvation deaths.

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The Centre told the court that it has already clarified, that in case of no Aadhar, other documents can be submitted and ration cannot be denied. It argued that it's a states' matter now.

CJI asked the Centre to respond over the issue in 4 weeks and said that the matter will be put up for final hearing.

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