Court Dismisses Plea On Removing "Aam Aadmi" In Delhi Government Schemes

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a PIL seeking change or removal of words "Aam Aadmi" from Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic and Aam Aadmi Polyclinics, saying it was government's exclusive domain to name a scheme and courts cannot interfere with it.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao declined to hear the Public Interest Litigation, which had alleged that the AAP-led Delhi government was taking undue advantage by using the words in its schemes.

The petitioner had claimed that by using the words, the AAP dispensation was trying to suggest to the voters of the national capital that the schemes are not of Delhi Government, but of Aam Aadmi Party.

The plea also stated that the Delhi government had issued a few schemes with the same nomenclature, but had renamed them as 'Mukhiya Mantri Healthcard' and 'Express Bus Service', and sought parity with those schemes.

To this, the bench said, "the present petition which has been filed as a PIL per se is not maintainable and also the decision of the respondent to re-name the schemes in the manner in which they have done is beyond the scope of judicial review. We do not find any merit in the petition, the petition is dismissed."

The petitioner, Shardish Kumar Garg, claimed he has been raising his voice in the interest of public by filing applications under the RTI Act, seeking information as to how the Delhi government has allowed the use of words "Aam Aadmi" in their dream project of mohalla clinics and polyclinics.

When the bench asked the petitioner's counsel whether there was any bar in any statute or under the Constitution for representing the schemes floated by the government in the manner it has been done in these two cases, he answered in the negative.

The bench said, "if that be so, for maintaining a PIL, it must be shown to the court that government or its instrumentalities have failed to discharge their public duty or they have violated the provisions of law or constitutional mandate in discharge of such duty.

"Having noted the submission of the counsel for the petitioner that there is no such violation, this court cannot enter into the arena over which the government has the exclusive domain to name a particular scheme in the manner it would like to," it said.

The AAP government had promised to build 1,000 mohalla clinics within a year of coming to power. However, due to unavailability of lands, currently 187 clinics are operational.