SC notice to Centre on plea against cancellation of ration cards causing alleged starvation deaths

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre on a plea alleging cancellation of around four crore ration cards in the country due to non-linking with Aadhaar cards, resulting into starvation deaths.

The plea was filed by Koili Devi, mother of an 11-year-old girl, who allegedly died due to starvation on September 28, 2017.

On Wednesday, a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde said, "The matter is too serious. We have to hear it."

The court issued notice to the Centre seeking its response within four weeks in the petition pending since 2018. It also asked the Union government not to treat the matter as adversarial litigation.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, contended than more than three crore ration cards were cancelled at central level and as many as 10 to 15 lakh cards were cancelled at each state level.

Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi, appearing for the Union government, termed the plea as 'misconceived'. He said that there was a grievance redressal mechanism under the Food Security Act.

"If Aadhaar is not available, alternate documents can be submitted. We have clearly said Aadhaar or no Aadhaar, nobody will be denied right to food," he said.

Gonsalves, for his part, said, there were situations where fingerprints or iris scanner did not work in tribal areas.

In an additional document, the petitioner claimed insistence on Aadhaar and biometric authentification led to the cancellation of nearly four crore ration cards in the country as per the Union government.

"The Union government casually gives an explanation that these cancelled cards were bogus. The real reason is that the technological system based on Iris identification, thumb prints, possession of Aadhaar, functioning of the internet in rural and remote areas led to large scale cancellation of ration cards without notice to the family concerned," it said.

The petitioner also maintained that not a single State has appointed independent nodal officers under Section 14 or District Grievance Redressal Officer under Section 15 of the National Food Security Act.

"All the States have mechanically granted additional designations to existing officers. In many cases, the officers given additional designations are from the Food Supply Department and they are the main persons responsible for corruption in the food distribution system," it alleged.