Supreme Court Flags Ration Card Misuse, Says Its Now A "Popularity Card"

Observing that ration cards have become a "popularity card", the Supreme Court on Wednesday wondered if the benefits meant for the poor percolated to undeserving persons.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said the benefit of subsidies should reach the genuine beneficiaries.

"Our concern is... are benefits meant for the genuinely poor persons percolating to those pockets who do not deserve it? Ration card has become a popularity card now," said Justice Surya Kant.

The judge went on, "These states just say we have issued these many cards. There are some states who when they have to show their development they say our per capita income is growing. And then when we talk of BPL, they say 75 per cent of the population is BPL. How can these facts be reconciled? The conflict is inherent. We have to ensure that benefits reach the genuine beneficiaries." The top court observed that states showed a high per capita growth when asked to highlight the development index but claimed 75 per cent of their population was below poverty line when it came to subsidies.

The bench was hearing a plea in a suo motu case initiated during the COVID19 pandemic to address the miseries of migrant labourers.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for some intervenors, said the anomaly stemmed from the inequalities in the income of people.

"There are a handful of people, who have huge wealth as compared to other population and per capita income figure is average of total income of the state. The rich continue to be getting richer while the poor remain poor," he said.

The poor migrant workers, who are registered in the e-shram portal of the government, need to be given free ration and the figure was around eight crore people, Bhushan said.

Justice Surya Kant said, "We hope that in the issuance of ration cards, there are no political elements involved. I have not lost my roots. I always want to know the plight of the poor. There are families who continue to be poor." Bhushan said the Centre did not conduct the 2021 Census and was continuing to rely on data from the 2011 Census as a result around 10 crore people, requiring free ration, remained out of the BPL categories.

Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre said the government was giving free ration to around 81.35 crore people under the National Food Security Act and another 11 crore people were covered by another similar scheme.

The bench adjourned the matter and asked the Centre to file its response on the status of free ration distributed to the poor.

On December 9, last year, the top court frowned upon the freebie culture and stressed on the need to create job opportunities and capacity building for migrant workers.

It was surprised when the Centre informed the court that 81 crore people were being given free or subsidised ration under the National Food Security Act of 2013.

"It means only the tax-payers are left out," it then said.

Bhushan had contended that directions were issued by the top court from time to time to all states and union territories to issue ration cards to migrant workers for availing free ration provided by the Centre.

On November 26, last year, the top court flagged the difficulties surrounding the distribution of freebies and said Covid times were different when distressed migrant workers were provided the relief.

In a judgment on June 29, 2021, and subsequent orders, the top court passed a slew of directions to the authorities asking them to undertake welfare measures, including giving ration cards to all migrant workers, who were in distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, registered with the e-shram portal.

The portal is a comprehensive national database of unorganised workers launched by the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment with the primary aim of facilitating the delivery of welfare benefits and social security measures to the country's unorganised sector workers.

On September 2, last year, the top court asked the Centre to file an affidavit giving details about compliance with its 2021 judgement and subsequent directions on providing ration cards and other welfare measures to migrant workers.

The Centre previously said it was providing ration to all those people who were eligible under the National Food Security Act.

The top court, in the 2021 judgement, termed as "unpardonable" the Centre's "apathy and lackadaisical attitude" towards creating the national database for unorganised workers and ordered its commencement by July 31, 2021, for the registration of all migrant workers and providing them with welfare measures.

It had ordered the states and union territories to frame schemes for providing free dry ration to them till the pandemic lasted while asking the Centre to allocate additional foodgrains and directing the department concerned to "allocate and distribute food grains" to migrant labourers".

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