NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Wednesday said naming of welfare schemes after political netas was all pervasive in states and at Centre and ruled that no exception could be taken to Tamil Nadu govt’s ‘Ungaludan Stalin’ scheme, which translates into ‘Your’s Stalin’.Setting aside Madras HC’s July 31 interim order restraining use of names of political personalities in any govt scheme in TN, which goes to polls in April-May next year, a bench of Chief Justice Bhushan R Gavai, and Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria penalised petitioner before the HC, AIADMK MP C Ve Shanmugam, with Rs 10 lakh.Dictating the order in open court after a more than hour-long hearing on appeals filed by DMK and TN govt, CJI Gavai said, “Launching of schemes in the name of political netas is a phenomenon practised throughout the country. The Tamil Nadu govt has submitted a list of 45 welfare schemes (launched by states and Union govt) named after various political netas. We do not wish to name the schemes in order to cause embarrassment to political parties.“While directing the AIADMK MP to deposit Rs 10 lakh within a week with the TN govt for utilisation in welfare schemes for the underprivileged, the CJI said, “Time and again we have observed that political battles are to be fought in the electoral arena. Courts are not the place to fight political battles.”Interestingly, the CJI-led bench withdrew Shanmugam’s writ petition before the HC to the SC and dismissed it terming it as “fully misconceived and an abuse of the process of law” for singling out the TN scheme and not challenging similar schemes prevalent in other states and at Centre.It allowed appeals of DMK and TN govt to set aside the HC order. DMK was represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and P Wilson. Rohatgi said SC had permitted use of photographs of the President, PM, CM and cabinet ministers in public advertisements to generate awareness among citizens about welfare schemesand that no political party in office has been immune to this phenomenon.For TN, senior advocate A M Singhvi supported the contentions of the party and said the scheme was meant to set up camps in every nook and corner of the state to enable and facilitate people of TN to avail full benefits of existing welfare schemes. Wilson said the AIADMK MP had approached Election Commission with the same allegation on July 21 for action against DMK and three days later, moved the HC alleging that EC was not taking action.Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the AIADMK MP, attempted to convince the court that a conjoint reading of a series of orders passed by SC on the issue took one to the conclusion that no welfare scheme could be named after political netas.After imposing a cost of Rs 10 lakh on Shanmugam, the bench said if the amount was not paid by the MP within a week, he would be liable for contempt of court proceedings.
