The Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 27, questioned the Telangana government for cancelling over 19 lakh ration cards and asked it to undertake physical verification of ration cards, which were cancelled on the basis of a computer algorithm. A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai said, "We direct the state of Telangana to conduct verification of all the ration cards cancelled pursuant to the directive issued by the Union government in 2016."
It noted that 17 parameters were taken into account before cancellation and sought reply from the Chief Secretary explaining how these cards were cancelled, which deprived the people of their right to have free ration.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioner, contended the ration cards were cancelled without giving an opportunity to the people. He added those whose ration cards were cancelled, they had to apply for fresh cards. The bench directed the authorities to conduct field verification of all the cards and also deal with representation of any aggrieved card holder expeditiously.
Gonsalves contended that the cards were cancelled on the basis of computer algorithm including wrong entry of Aadhaar card, which violates the K. Puttaswamy judgement. The top court was also informed that people were denied food grains, despite the Union government saying that Aadhaar card is not mandatory for it. The bench said the state should have been more cautious before cancelling the cards.
The top court made these observations while hearing a plea filed by social activist SQ Masood, challenging an order by the Telangana High Court, which refused to entertain his Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the cancellation of ration cards.