Bombay High Court dismisses plea by Uddhav faction MLA alleging unequal allocation of work funds to MLAs

The Bombay High Court Friday dismissed a plea filed by Ravindra Waikar, a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) belonging to the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, seeking equal allocation of Maharashtra Local Development (MLD) funds to MLAs without discrimination on the basis of political parties to which MLAs belong..A division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Rajesh Patil observed that there was no sufficient material placed before the Court to test the reasonableness and fairness of the decision of the government sanctioning different works in different localities. “If the exercise of according of sanction to different works to be carried out in different constituencies is to be examined for its transparency and fairness, detailed material on the basis of which comparison between two different areas can be made is required to be placed before the Court. That material is not available before us nor has it been produced before the Court by Waikar. But that is not present here, and therefore, the argument that there has been arbitrariness and impermissible discrimination on the part of the State Government even in according sanction to different works in different localities is devoid of merit,” the Court held. .It emphasized that a decision to accord sanction for carrying out development works and allocate funds for its execution is an administrative function guided by the State policy and a judicial review of such a decision was possible only if there was sufficient material..MLD funds are allocated to each MLA and legislative council for development of the local areas. Waikar's plea filed through advocate Siddhasen Borulkar said that the amount allocation list to which he had access to indicated that constituencies represented by the ruling party i.e. Bharatiya Janata Party and Eknath Shinde faction of Shivsena (Balasaheb Thackeray) (Eknath Shinde faction) and Republican Party were allocated large amounts of funds.Waikar stated that the allocation of funds was discriminatory and arbitrary..The Urban Development Department (UDD) opposed the plea and stated that 100 per cent of funds had already been disbursed towards the approved works under the said schemes and this allocation was made in accordance with the guidelines and the same was not “arbitrary” and there was “no favouritism”.Advocate General Dr Birendra Saraf representing the State government submitted that the fund allocation was made as per the requirement of certain projects and the amount was distributed for specific development work in those areas as per procedure..The bench agreed with Saraf’s arguments and further observed that any grievance about the manner in which allocations should be made can be raised before the appropriate state department“Considering the absence of material, there was no occasion to examine the larger issue as to in what manner allocation of state funds to MLAs and MLCs be made keeping in view of principle of fairness and transparency in such matters and the issue is kept open,” the Court held..[Read order]