Delhi High Court
Delhi Anusuchit Jati Vikas ... vs Department For The Welfare Of ... on 12 September, 2012
Author: A.K.Sikri
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Judgment Reserved on: 29th August, 2012
% Judgment Pronounced on: 12th September, 2012
+ WP(C) NO. 8674/2011
Delhi Anusuchit Jati Vikas Sangathan ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr. Lalit Kumar, Advocate
Versus
Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC
Minorities And Anr. ... Respondent
Through: Ms. Zubeda Begum, Ms. Sana
Ansari, Advocates for GNCTD
Ms. Renuka Arora, Adv. for DSIIDS
Mr. Parvinder Chauhan, Adv. for
DUSIB
CORAM:
HON'BLE THE ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW
A.K. SIKRI (ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE):
This writ petition is filed by Delhi Anusuchit Jati Vikas Sangathan
(Registered) in public interest. It is stated that petitioner society is
constituted for the welfare of the weaker sections living in JJ cluster/re-
settlement colonies and to improve their quality of lives. In this writ
petition, the petitioner has sought to espouse the cause of dwellers of jhuggi
jhopri of Nangloi re-settlement colony who are stated to be people of below
poverty line. This colony which is situated at Phase II Nangloi came into
existence in the year 1968 on a barren and uninhibited land allotted to
unauthorized Jhuggi-jhopri dwellers of Delhi with a view to resettle them.
In the said basti is the land of Slum and J.J. Department in Nangloi which is
being used as water toilet for last 25 years and this land is lying vacant for
years. It is an open area which is being used for the purpose of toilet. It is
open garbage which is affecting the life and liberty of people residing in the
said Basti. It is a health hazard. The inhabitants of the said Basti have to
make this place habitable by their sheer hard work. This area at the time of
resettlement was not all habitable. It was nothing but garbage in which
humans were let to live in. People of the said basti have their life in danger.
At the risk of their lives, they are holding on as they have no other place to
live in. The demand of the petitioner Sangathan is that there should be
construction of sheds in the aforesaid area so that local semi-educated
persons of Nangloi could get the opportunity of employment. For this
purpose, they have approached various authorities including Delhi
Financial Corporation, DSIIDC, Slum & JJ Department (now DUSIB),
social welfare department of the Government of NCT of Delhi etc. Since
no concrete steps are taken by any of these authorities, present writ petition
is filed with the following prayers:
"Issue writ of Mandamus, and any other writ or direction
under Article 226 of the Constitution against non-release
of funds for construction of work places for welfare of
weaker sections of society like SC/ST/OBC/
MINORITIES by Department of SC/ST Welfare, the
respondent No.1.
a) To issue appropriate writ in favour of petitioner
directing respondent to immediately release money for
the cost of land of DUSIB and construction of work
places to DSIDC so that the construction of work places
is started immediately and which is pending for disposal
before the respondent no.1 for such a long time and is
against all cannons of justice.
b) To direct the respondent no.1 to remove garbage
from the said site which is being used by the people of
the area as a toilet so that people of the area could live in
healthy and hygienic condition improving condition of
environment and making area disease free.
c) To direct the respondent no.1 to give details of
expenditure specifically done by them for the welfare of
SC/ST from the plan funds made available to them by the
Central Government under SCSP. Respondent no.1 may
be directed to ask what the schemes are being run by
them both State and the Central Government schemes for
the uplift of weaker sections to fulfill the constitutional
mandate and Plan objectives and how much of Plan funds
lapsed/diverted for other expenses.
d) To direct the respondent no.1 that if it is not
possible for it to formulate a policy to fund the work
Petitioner is not insisting a policy formulation to fund the
proposal but it is satisfied if the vacant land lying unused
to be put to fruitful use considering that fund allocated
for welfare of SC/ST often remains unutilized. If funds
are available Government can consider funding this
proposal.
e) Cost of the suit and consequential relief may also
be passed in favour of the plaintiff and against the
defendants."
2. According to the petitioner, it is the right of the weaker sections,
particularly those who are living below the poverty line to get the aforesaid
facilities which is in consonance with Article 21 of the Constitution as the
right to life enshrined therein encompasses within it right to decent living.
It is also argued that Government is under obligation to do the needful and
implement the programme which is in accord with directive principles
contained in Article 38, 39, 41 and 46 of the Constitution of India.
3. Reply affidavit to this petition is filed by the Government of NCT of
Delhi. A preliminary objection is taken to the effect that the present writ
petition is not maintainable in the form of public interest litigation as it
does not fulfill the criteria laid down by the Apex Court in the case of State
of Uttaranchal v. Balwant Singh Chaufal & Ors., (2010) 3 SCC 402
where the Court stated that it is the duty of the Court while dealing with
PILs to inter alia examine:
(i) The Courts should prima facie verify the credentials of the petitioner
before entertaining a PIL.
(ii) The Court should be prima facie satisfied regarding the correctness
of the contents of the petition before entertaining a PIL.
(iii) The Court should be fully satisfied the substantial public interest is
involved before entertaining the petition.
(iv) The court should also ensure that there is no personal gain, private
motive or oblique motive behind filing the public interest litigation.
4. It is argued that the present petition is guided by self-gain as the
petitioner Sangathan, as per the admission in the petition itself, is the
Sangathan of residents of Nangloi. The credentials of petitioner are also
challenged on the ground that a chaupal had been constructed in Nangloi
which is unauthorizedly occupied by the petitioner and a direction was
issued by this Court in a writ petition filed by the petitioner itself to hand
over the said chaupal as well as panchayat ghar to the authorities.
Therefore, petitioner is not a body dedicated for public purposes. It is also
the submission of the respondents that there is no scheme of the
Government to construct work centre for the benefit of scheduled caste
persons and, therefore, no mandamus of this nature can be issued. It is
argued that for incurring any expenditure by the Government, a scheme has
to be formulated by it. Otherwise, it is pointed out, the Government is
implementing a number of schemes for the welfare of scheduled castes in
Delhi which include grant of scholarship to the students, free supply of
stationery, construction of community halls, development work in
habitation with majority population of scheduled caste, running of pre-
examination coaching centre, running of hostels exclusively for
SC/STMatri Shishy Yojana for pre natal care, Janani Suraksha Yojana for
delivery in a hospital, providing of houses to scheduled caste free of cost,
imparting of vocational training to entrepreneurs, loan facilities from the
corporation to scheduled caste. It is also highlighted that respondent is
implementing the SCSP and the total fund flow to SCSP out of the plan
budget of the respondent for the last five years is as under:
Rs. in Lacs
Annual Plan Outlay of Expenditure Flow to Percentage
Delhi Govt. of Delhi SCSP flow to SCSP
Govt.
2006-07 520000.00 508370.26 88458.95 17.40
2007-08 900000.00 874316.51 146872.24 16.79
2008-09 1000000.00 962498.80 172500.46 17.92
2009-10 1130000.00 1104241.00 209430.02 18.96
2010-11 1140000.00 1049644.06 2064499.11 19.67
5. Further, Delhi being the Capital of the country, majority of the
Government funds have to be spent on infrastructure projects and other
development projects. The population of Government of NCT of Delhi is
also cosmopolitan in nature and most of the Scheduled Caste population in
Delhi is migratory in nature and most of the Scheduled Caste population in
Delhi is migratory in nature and is living inter-mix with other communities
and there are no specific cluster or bastis where exclusively Scheduled
Caste persons are living. Even in cases where the Government has allotted
plots/flats to Scheduled Caste persons under various Government schemes,
the said plots/flats have been sold to persons belonging to communities
other than Scheduled Caste and the cluster has become a cluster with mix
kind of habitation.
6. From the aforesaid, it is clear that the decision to construct or not to
construct work places in the colony in question is a policy matter and there
is no specific right in favour of the petitioner to get these work places
constructed. Therefore, no mandamus can be issued. [See State of
Himachal Pradesh v. Umed Ram Sharma, AIR 1986 SC 847; Secretary,
Cannanor District Muslim Educational Association v. State of Kerala,
2010 (5) Scale 184]. It is also clear from the affidavit of the respondents
that the Government is having various schemes for the welfare of SC/ST
community and, therefore, it cannot be said that interest of this class is not
taken care of by the Government. The record including the correspondence
filed by the parties further reveal that the demand of the petitioner was duly
considered at various levels but was not found feasible. For this reason, we
are of the view that no relief can be granted to the petitioner Sangathan. In
view thereof, we are not going into the credentials of the petitioner which
are questioned by the respondents.
Petition is accordingly dismissed with no costs.
ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE
RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW, J.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2012
pk
