New Delhi:
A lawyer has challenged the contentious Food Security Ordinance in the Supreme Court, terming it as "illegal". The Centre's ambitious welfare programme is now a law after receiving President Pranab Mukherjee's assent on Friday; the scheme provides subsidised food to nearly 800 million or 67 per cent of the population and is being viewed as a major vote-getter in the national elections, due by May.
Advocate ML Sharma today filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), asking the top court to quash the ordinance. The Congress-led UPA government, which is in a minority, had brought in the executive order earlier this week to clear the food scheme to bypass a debate in Parliament.
The petition says that an ordinance can be promulgated only in extraordinary circumstances and the current situation certainly didn't warrant the move. Mr Sharma also justified the order as illegal by citing that the monsoon session was barely three weeks away.
The ordinance must be cleared by Parliament within six weeks of its next seating; sources say this may provoke the government to delay the Monsoon Session.
Mr Sharma also contended that the Food Security Bill had already been tabled in Parliament; hence, a move to push it through the ordinance route was aimed at securing political mileage. The bill had been expected to be cleared by Parliament in February, but opposition protests ensured that didn't happen.
Opposition parties led by the BJP have attacked the government for ramming the measure through by decree, saying there has not been enough discussion of its effect on prices and on farmers who must produce more food.
The populist programme, championed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will cost Rs 1.25 lakh crore per year. Critics of the scheme, though, say that the country can ill-afford such a costly subsidy at a time of slowing economic growth and when credit ratings agencies are eyeing the country's large deficit.