The five guarantee scheme to promote social justice that were promised by the Indian National Congress party ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections were discriminatory against men and in breach of Article 14 of the Constitution, the petitioner challenging Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s election from Varuna Assembly constituency told the Karnataka High Court on Saturday.
The submissions were made by Senior Advocate Pramila Neasargi, who appeared for petitioner KM Shankara, before single-judge Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav.
Neasargi told the Court that Siddaramaiah’s election from Varuna Assembly constituency should be cancelled since he had resorted to malpractices such as bribing voters ahead of the elections.
The guarantee scheme that includes free trips for women, free electricity, rice distribution, financial assistance for women heads of households and unemployment allowances for graduates, were examples of such malpractice, Neasargi told the Court.
The guarantee scheme that was announced in the Indian National Congress’ manifesto amounted to bribery and was an instance of corrupt practice under the Representation of the People Act, she said.
“In this case free bus, at the cost of public tax payers' money, it is not earning any revenue. And it is not serving common good. It is not applicable to both. It is only for a woman. So, directly violating Article 14,” Neasargi said.
During the previous hearing, Senior Advocate Ravivarma Kumar had appeared for Siddaramaiah and told the Court that the petition challenging his 2023 election from the Varuna constituency was a work of "copy-paste" and liable to be dismissed on that ground alone.
Kumar had also told the Court at the time that in March this year, a challenge to the 2023 election of Member of Legislative Assembly Rizwan Arshad from Shivajinagar on similar grounds was dismissed by Justice S Vishwajith Shetty of the Karnataka High Court.
He had said that the petition challenging the Chief Minister's election had also been filed with identical pleadings and therefore, the petitioner should be prosecuted for being part of such "mass copying" of election petitions.