The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Delhi govt on a plea seeking formulation of a comprehensive policy for selection of citizens for Mukhya Mantri Tirth Yatra Yojna (MTYY) in accordance with the provisions of Indian Constitution.
A single-judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla directed govt to file reply within three weeks and adjourned the matter to July 21.
The bench directions came on a plea filed by Rajesh Kumar, convener, legal cell, Poorvanchal Morcha, BJP Delhi.
Kumar has alleged in the plea that Delhi Govt is misusing the policy guidelines to benefit people selected by AAP MLAs thus causing prejudice to other parties.
“…The said scheme does not bear any official address for submission of applications forms. The entire process of collection of forms, submission and selection are being controlled and undertaken by the ruling political party and its agents/workers without any administrative control or supervision. No acknowledgement for the collection of forms are being provided to the applicants. Further, the compulsory requirements of only Voter ID Card of Delhi and a certificate from MLA/Minister of GNCT/Chairman of Tirth Yatra Vikas Samiti (who is also an agent of ruling political party) blocks all transparency with respect to the collection of application forms and submission of the same.
The said provisions are also providing unhindered power to the said political party to arbitrarily discriminate and select the choice of people as beneficiaries in order to suit their political agenda. The same are leading to the
illegal misuse of public money to facilitate the agenda of one political party denying equal opportunity and level playing ground to other political parties. Hence impugned policy guidelines are ultra vires,” the plea read.
The plea further stated: “…The scheme not only puts the burden upon the citizens applying through the scheme to chase the M.L.A or their agents of their respective constituency, Minister of the Govt of NCT, Chairman of the Samiti but also fails to comprehend that the involvement of the elected representatives, i.e political figures in the scheme will make the scheme of things more biased, especially towards individuals having allegiance towards other political ideologies, parties, which can result in the rejection of the application of the citizens.”
—India Legal Bureau