HC declines to vacate stay on Kalyana Lakshmi, Shaadi Mubarak

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The Telangana High Court on Wednesday declined to vacate the order staying operation of State government’s Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes and disbursement of funds to beneficiaries under the two schemes.

Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar, who passed the stay order on August 12 after hearing a writ petition filed by HC advocate Vijay Gopal challenging constitutional validity of the schemes, adjourned the hearing to Thursday. The judge also directed social media platforms to delete the content filed by a website Telugu Scribe after the advocate filed an interim application stating that the website was posting misleading content over his plea questioning operation of the two welfare schemes.

The government had filed the petition to vacate the stay passed by the judge. When the matter came up for hearing during the post lunch session, the judge initially declined to hear the stay vacate plea. The Additional Advocate General Mohammed Imran Khan, however, persuaded the bench to hear the matter contending there was an element of urgency.

He said the stay order forced the government to stop disbursement of money to the beneficiaries under the two schemes being enforced through eight Government Orders (GOs). This had affected the beneficiaries and created a logjam of sorts in implementation of the two welfare schemes, the AAG said. The judge sought to know from the AAG why the government was not evincing similar interest in paying compensation to citizens who had given up their lands for irrigation and other projects.

“Imagine the plight of the land owner who has given his land to the State and awaiting compensation for years while the State says there is no money as it is grappling with the financial crunch,” the judge said. Was it not the statutory responsibility of the State to ensure the land losers got the compensation when it was earmarking budget for welfare schemes, the judge asked. “Why is the State not prioritising paying compensation to land losers and why priority was being given to welfare schemes,” the judge said.

The AAG said the State Cabinet had approved the budgetary allocations to the welfare schemes and it would prioritise payment of compensation to land losers. The petitioner and advocate Vijay Gopal, in his interim application, stated that Telugu Scribe was posting misleading content projecting his petition as a conspiracy to stall the welfare schemes.

He also informed the bench that he was receiving threats from unidentified persons over filing the petition challenging the welfare schemes. The arguments will continue on Thursday.

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