The Gujarat High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed with vague assertions with regard to the huge ration card scam being prevalent in the district of Bhavnagar, State of Gujarat.
The contention in the petition is that the petitioner N.G.O. made a representation, making allegations of ration card scam involving making of duplicate ration cards, duplicate Aadhar Cards, issuance of ration cards to persons not in existence and also of forging government documents.
It is stated that a huge scam worth crores of rupees is going on, wherein, food grain meant for the poor under the Public Distribution Scheme, is being diverted to the open market by ration shop owners and officials. The Aadhar card numbers of genuine beneficiaries are being replaced with those of imposters. It is then stated that in ration shops across District of Bhavnagar, Aadhar Cards, essential to claim ration of those who are not picking up their monthly quota, are being misused. The records are being forged to first replace such genuine Aadhar Card in government computer system with fake ones. Then, the grains are shown as withdrawn by ration shop owners in the name of those fake Aadhar Card holders, and diverted to the open market.
It is also stated in the petition that the N.G.O. through its General Secretary wrote a detailed representation to the Collector and the Superintendent of Police, Bhavnagar, highlighting the ration card scam. It is then contended that sufficient material has been supplied by the N.G.O. to the respondent asking him to make inquiry.
Having taking note of the averments made in the petition, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P. Mayee noted that vague assertions have been made by the petitioner in the petition about forgery being done by the fair price shop owners and the modus operandi adopted by them as noted herein above. However, none of the fair price shop owners, who may have been involved in the scam, as alleged in the petition, has been impleaded herein. Apart from the vague averments as noted herein above, there is no instance of any such incident, which may lead to the alleged scam.
It is clear to the Court that the petitioner, by making the statements above noted, is asking the Court to make a roving inquiry into the matter of misappropriation of the essential commodities at the hands of the ration card holders.
“In the public distribution system of essential commodities, complete check and balance is provided. The remedy before the petitioner was to approach the competent authority by giving the particular instance of misappropriation of essential commodities or forgery by a particular fair price shop owner. In any case, such a writ petition, in the nature of Public Interest Litigation, on the vague averments made therein, cannot be entertained. The same is accordingly dismissed”, the order reads.