The Supreme Court terms the cancellation of three crore ration cards sans Aadhaar card link as too serious. They seek the centre’s response to the scrapping of the ration cards. They asked the Centre to respond to allegations in a PIL that nearly three crore ration cards across states were cancelled. All due to non-seeding with Aadhaar. The plea further claimed that it was leading to starvation deaths in many states.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian was initially reluctant to entertain the PIL. But senior advocate Colin Gonsalves pleaded that lack of internet services led to the non-seeding of the ration cards. It deprived the poor of their foodgrain quota under the public distribution system.
The bench said that this matter is “too serious and will be put up for a final hearing. Also issued notice to the Centre. The bench said it was issuing notice on the petition only because of the allegation that Ration cards were cancelled due to non-linking with the Aadhaar card.
The apex court had looked for a response from different states over the issue of deaths due to undernourishment and starvation due to revocation of the ration cards. Further, the bench said that it will hear the case in four weeks time. It has directed the concerned states to undertake the redressal steps enumerated under Sections 14, 15 and 16 of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
Also Read: PM Modi Speech: PM promotes ‘One Nation, One Ration Card