SC pulls up Telangana for cancelling 19 lakh ration cards without notice

The bench comprising of Justice LN Rao and Justice BR Gavai was hearing a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) challenging the cancellation of ration cards of around 19 lakh people in Telangana without giving any notice or citing any reason.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the state of Telangana to conduct a verification of all the 19 lakh ration cards that have been canceled and deal with representations of such cardholders expeditiously. The bench comprising of Justice LN Rao and Justice BR Gavai was hearing a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) challenging the cancellation of ration cards of around 19 lakh people in Telangana without giving any notice or citing any reason.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves arguing for the petitioner submitted before the court that there are 17 parameters based on which a card is canceled but the holders haven't been informed on what basis their cards were canceled nor were they given any notice, instead they are simply asked to apply again. He argued that cards are issued after the authorities come to the houses, check huts, families, etc, and still canceling the cards is an "act of cruelty" for these poor people.

As per the reports, 4.4 crore ration cards are canceled throughout the country. When there was an objection to not giving any notice in Telangana, the authorities said that it is not mandatory in the National Food Security Act. Gonsalves submitted that reasons for cancellation include, faulty Adhaar number, migration, marriage, death, having four-wheelers, etc. He argued that as per the court's judgment in the Puttuswamy case Adhaar is not mandatory for this.

He also said if the Adhaar number doesn't match then that is possible the details are filled by the people at the center and not villagers themselves and in that case, authorities have to go on the field and check. For migration, he argued that "we have one nation one ration card policy so there can not be any cancellation." For deaths and marriage as the reason, he argued that only the concerned beneficiary should be added or deleted. "In any case, I pass the test, I cleared everything, I got my ration card but they deleted. One member dies of the family they cancel it for the whole family. Why? They should just be deleting one beneficiary," argued Gonsalves.

The state of Telangana submitted that new cards also have been issued and cancellation is done to weed out bogus cards. Moreover, this problem is all over India and in Telangana, nobody has gone to the authorities with complaints, it's just a PIL. Court pulled up the state saying that the matter concerns Telangana and why it expects everyone to come to the court, they are dealing with the PIL.

"Every few years lakhs getting added to the population. Issuance of the new cards won't be benefiting to the older ones. You are saying you are issuing new cards, we don't know if it is for the new ones or the old ones when you are canceling. Can you deprive people of ration? What is the problem with showing notice and saying that you will cancel because of this issue? Why this en masse cancellation? People won't get food. Even for weeding out bogus cards how can you without verifying cancel?" questioned Justice Rao.

Advocate Venkat Reddy for the state argued that the verification was done by systems. "You are very frank in saying that you did a system check. Not field verification. The complaint is that there is no field verification...If computers can do everything then human interference is not needed at all," said the court.

"We don't appreciate this. You cancel and you say they will apply again.....you are dealing with people who are taking ration from PDS, its not a luxury petition," said J Rao. Court ordered the chief secretary of the state to file an affidavit detailing what steps were taken before cancelling the cards and posted the matter for hearing again after three weeks.