The Supreme Court Friday strongly disapproved of the misuse of government machinery and public resources by regional satraps like Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to organise rallies.

Censuring the misuse of the railways to ferry participants to a rally organised by Lalu Prasad in Patna on Oct 28 and the official machinery deployed for a host of rallies, including one by Mayawati in Chandigarh, the same day, a bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan issued notices to the union and Uttar Pradesh government.

Impressed by the relevance of a plea in this regard, the bench, which also included Justices R V Raveendran and J M Panchal, suggested that petitioner G D Goel name more state governments in his petition as respondents in order to solicit their stand on the issue. “State machinery should never be misused,” observed the chief justice, while agreeing with Goel’s criticism of the countrywide practice of misuse of official machinery to organise rallies by leaders of various ruling parties.

Pleading to the court to take note of the misuse and wastage of public resources, Goel listed at least five rallies in various parts of the country on October 28.

The first meet that Goel, a former editor of erstwhile Hindi Daily Blitz, recalled was Lalu Prasad’s `Chetawani’ rally in Patna for which at least 57 trains were diverted and 26 special trains pressed into service.

The same day there were two events in the national capital — a marathon organised by telecommunication major Vadafone and a march of peasants and landless labourers who had reached Delhi from Gwalior. That was the day Mayawati showed off her power in Chandigarh, deploying over 50 SUVs and cars to ferry her party activists to the meeting ground. A few days before that, the UP chief minister had organised another rally in Lucknow, “unabashedly misusing government machinery and fund”, said Goel.