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A Supreme Court bench of Justices Nageshwar Rao and Gavai today asked the Chief Secretary of the State of Telangana to file an affidavit explaining the steps/verification undertaken by the government before canceling the ration cards of 19 lakh persons. The court has further directed the State to conduct a verification of all the ration cards that were canceled pursuant to the directives issued by the central government in 2016 for linkage of Aadhar card with ration card.

The court was hearing the plea by social activist S.Q. Masood challenging the order of Telangana High Court dismissing his public interest litigation which challenged the cancelation of ration cards by the government without issuing notice to the persons concerned.

The Telangana High Court disposed off the writ petition stating that “as the lock down was recalled by the Government in the end of August, 2020, and the relief prayed for does not survive any longer.” The Supreme Court deemed the order of Telangana High Court cryptic.

When the matter came up for hearing, Colin Gonsalves, Sr. Adv, appearing for the petitioners submitter that the ration card of 19 lakh people were canceled without assigning any reason and that there was no human intervention in the same. He further argued that the ration cards were canceled based on computer algorithms. It was argued that the government in its RTI reply has said that the the cancelation was because one of the 17 reasons that is computer generated. Gonsalves argued that the ration shop dealers are the main source of bogus cards and that the dealers created 300-400 bogus cards and draws ration from it and sells it to the marker. He further submitted that genuine cards are canceled while ration is allotted and drawn from the bogus cards.

The counsel for the state submitted that the matter should be remitted back to High Court as it had not gone into the merit. The bench however remarked saying “We cannot close our eyes to violation of fundamental rights if the High Court has.” The counsel further submitted that the cancelation was done on the basis of a computer algorithm and the people whose cards were canceled can reapply and get them. He further submitted that the people whose cards have been canceled are not before the court and that the matter was a public interest litigation.

The court on hearing the counsels expressed its dissatisfaction on the arguments of the counsel for the State of Telangana and noted that the ration cards of 19 lakh people have been canceled without giving them an opportunity to be heard. The court therefore directed the Chief Secretary of the State to file an affidavit informing the court as to the steps taken before cancelation of ration cards in the State. The court further directed the State to conduct a verification of all the ration cards that were canceled pursuant to the directives issued by centre in 2016. The court further directed the relevant authorities to conduct verification of all the cards that were canceled and consider representation of the persons whose ration card was canceled. The court has thus adjourned the matter by three weeks.

Case title: SQ Masood Vs State of Telangana