Delhi High Court records exclusion from food rations due to Aadhaar; asks Delhi Government to operationalise provisions of National Food Security Act
Delhi High Court
directs Delhi government to operationalise transparency, grievance redress and
accountability provisions of National Food Security Act, says no deserving
person should be left out of the ambit of food security
September 1, 2017
In a landmark hearing
today, a bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Chief Justice Geeta Mittal
& Justice C. Hari Shankar said that were appalled to note that the Delhi
government had failed to promulgate rules under the National Food Security Act
(NFSA) including those related to transparency, grievance redress and
accountability provisions despite passage of more than 3 years since the
enactment of the law. The Court directed the government to frame Rules and
operationalise all provisions of the law in a time-bound manner to ensure
proper functioning of ration shops in Delhi. Rules under the law are required
to be framed by the State government, but till date the Delhi government had
not promulgated any rules.
These directions came
in an ongoing case filed by the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan against Aadhaar
being made mandatory for receiving ration under the National Food Security Act.
The High Court said that no deserving and eligible person should be left out of
the ambit of food security. Several affidavits were filed by people testifying
how either they themselves or members of their family were excluded from the
National Food Security Act as they did not possess Aadhaar at the time when
ration cards were made. The Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan informed the court
that it had identified many more cases of exclusions of the most marginalised
sections of society- homeless, transgenders, residents of slums etc.- due to
Aadhaar being a mandatory condition for accessing rations.
In the last hearing
the Court had appointed Mr. Zoheb Hossain (advocate) to act as a commissioner
of the court and meet with people who are being excluded from food security due
to Aadhaar and also visit the shops where Aadhaar enabled Point of Sale (POS)
devices were installed. The report of the Commissioner recorded the problems
faced by people due to Aadhaar being mandatory and also the problems in areas
where Aadhaar based biometric authentication through Point of Sale (POS) device
was made mandatory for receiving food entitlements from ration shops.
It is the
first time that a report by an independent person appointed by the
court has confirmed that making Aadhaar mandatory for receiving ration has led
to exclusions. In fact even the response filed by the Delhi government admitted
that there were problems in the delivery of ration using Point of Sale devices-
like network coverage, lack of electricity, biometric failures etc.,- due to
which the government had to allow manual distribution of rations.
The commissioner’s
report also highlights that Aadhaar in itself cannot resolve all the issues
plaguing the public distribution system. When the commissioner visited the
ration shops to examine the problems due to POS devices, the shops were found
to be closed during working hours. The Commissioner had to call up the Food
Department officials in order to get the ration shops to open. The High Court
noted that poor functioning of ration shops is a key problem which hinders
peoples’ ability to access rations.
The Delhi Rozi Roti
Adhikar Abhiyan also put before the court its report on ‘Peoples’ Assessment of
the Implementation of Transparency, Grievance Redress and Accountability
Measures of the National Food Security Act in Delhi’ which on the basis of
physical inspection of 250 shops (10% of all ration shops in Delhi) found that:
more than 60% shops were shut during working hours; most shops did not display
requisite information of rights of ration cardholders; in many cases shops were
selling poor quality of grains, overcharging etc. The report highlights that
complaints about non-delivery of ration are wide-spread across low income and
marginalised communities in Delhi.
The National Food Security
law provides for mandatory periodic social audits and setting up of State Food
Commission. Till date, no social audit has been undertaken and there is no
functional State Food Commission in Delhi. Further the law also requires
appointment of District Grievance Redressal Officers, internal grievance
redressal mechanism and transparency of ration related records. These
provisions have not been properly implemented in Delhi.
The Court said that it
was inclined to appoint local commissioners to monitor functioning of ration
shops in Delhi. There are 2500 ration shops in Delhi and about 72 lakh people
who have been identified as beneficiaries so far. The case is now listed
for hearing on September 19. The Delhi Rozi Roti Abhikar Abhiyan was
represented by Mr. Sanjay Parikh, Apar Gupta and Prasanna.
For further details,
please contact
Anjali Bhardwaj- 9910009819 \
or Amrita 9810273984
(On behalf of
Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan)
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