HC lifts stay on Kalyana Lakshmi, Shaadi Mubarak

metro india news  I hyderabad

The Telangana government on Tuesday received relief from the High Court as a Chief Justice-led division bench set aside the interim stay imposed by a single judge on the implementation of the Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes.

The division bench was hearing the government’s appeal challenging the single judge’s order staying the implementation of the two welfare schemes.

The single judge had passed the interim order on a petition filed by advocate Vijay Gopal in his individual capacity, challenging eight government orders issued since 2014 in connection with the schemes. The stay was granted after the government failed to file its counter in the matter.

Appearing for the government, Advocate General A. Sudarshan Reddy argued that the petition challenged welfare schemes that had been in operation since 2014 and that their implementation neither affected the petitioner nor violated any of his rights. He also pointed out that the petitioner was not a beneficiary of either scheme.

The AG contended that the petition did not qualify as a public interest litigation. He submitted that the Supreme Court had permitted schemes similar to Shaadi Mubarak and said Kalyana Lakshmi was also a welfare scheme of a similar nature.

He further argued that the petition was not maintainable before a single judge and that a division bench had jurisdiction to hear challenges to government policy decisions. The AG urged the court to vacate the interim stay on the implementation of the schemes.

Accepting the government’s arguments, the division bench lifted the stay and allowed the schemes to continue.