Supreme Court Says Won't Interfere In Delhi Doorstep Ration Scheme Order

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to interfere with the Delhi High Court interim order which cleared the way for the Delhi government's doorstep delivery of ration scheme.

A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao asked the High Court to hear the matter pending before it on next Monday and the Delhi government also assured the top court that the scheme will not be implemented till then.

The Delhi government told the Supreme Court that nowadays everything is being delivered home including cooked food and liquor and there is nothing wrong with the delivery of food grains at the doors of poor people under the Public Distribution System.

The bench said it was not inclined to entertain the appeal of the Centre since the matter is pending before the High Court.

The central government has filed an appeal in the top court against the High Court's decision clearing the way for the Delhi government's doorstep delivery of ration scheme.

The Centre has challenged the Delhi High Court order allowing implementation of "Mukhyamantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna" saying that the High Court had permitted the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government to implement the scheme without hearing the Centre on the deleterious impact of the scheme, which runs counter to the provisions of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), on the distribution of ration to the needy.

The central government has approached the Supreme Court alleging that the AAP government is trying to run a parallel distribution scheme.

It said that one of the important adverse impacts would be on the implementation of "one nation one ration card" scheme, which was launched by the central government to benefit the migrant workers who could draw foodgrains from ration shops at their work place anywhere in India through biometric authentication.

The High Court by its order dated March 22 directed the Delhi government not to curtail or stop the supply of the existing PDS distributors while implementing the Mukhyamantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana.

On September 27, the High Court had allowed the Delhi Government to cut down the supplies to Fair Price Shops (FPS) to the extent of persons who have opted for doorstep delivery. The High Court passed the order after noting that "an overwhelming majority" has opted for door step delivery.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)