Telangana HC lifts stay on Kalyana Lakshmi, Shaadi Mubarak schemes

Hyderabad: A division bench of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday, September 1, stayed a single judge’s interim order that had put a hold on the Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin, passed the order while hearing an appeal filed by the state government against the single-judge ruling, the Times of India reported.

It also suspended further proceedings in the writ petition filed by advocate Vijay Gopal.

Appearing for the government, Advocate General A Sudharshan Reddy said that the scheme had been in operation since 2014 and questioned why the petitioner had approached the court only now.

He argued that the petitioner was neither a beneficiary nor was negatively affected by the scheme in any manner.

Opposing the appeal, Vijay Gopal said that he was challenging the scheme as a citizen of the state. He added that while the Constitution calls for upliftment of women and children, it does not permit discrimination based on gender.

The bench sought to know whether the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has made any adverse findings on the expenditure under the scheme. Vijay Gopal said no specific CAG reports declared the scheme as unconstitutional or lacking legal sanction.

However, the CAG had pointed out Rs 94 crore as unaccounted expenditure linked to the scheme.

Stay on Kalyan Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes

The High Court had stayed both schemes on August 12 while hearing a petition filed by advocate Vijay Gopal challenging their constitutional validity.

Gopal contended that the schemes, run through a series of government orders, lacked legislative sanction and that spending from the Consolidated Fund of the state on their basis violated constitutional provisions. The state government had failed to file its counter-affidavit even after being directed to do so, prompting the interim stay.