Supreme Court Rejects PIL Alleging Misuse Of Public Servants For Electoral Gains By Ruling Party

Supreme Court rejects PIL alleging misuse of Public Servants for Electoral gains by Ruling party.

The Supreme Court refuses to entertain a PIL accusing the ruling party of leveraging public servants for electoral advantages.

EAS Sarma and Jagdeep S Chhokar demand the cancellation of controversial letters and office memoranda.

Explore the legal battle to uphold the fundamental rights of citizens under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

Supreme Court rejects PIL: SC rejected the petition alleging the use of public servants for electoral gains, the ruling party was accused.

The Supreme Court has refused to hear a PIL alleging the use of public servants by the ruling party for electoral gains.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Prashant Kumar Mishra took note of the arguments of lawyer Prashant Bhushan and said it was not inclined to hear the ‘publicity interest litigation’.

Bhushan said that this is a serious matter where the ruling party allegedly wants to use public servants to promote its work with the aim of gaining an advantage in the upcoming elections.

Who filed the petition?

EAS Sarma and Jagdeep S Chhokar have filed the PIL.

In this, a demand has been made to cancel the letter dated October 9, 2023, of the Controller General of Defense Accounts of the Ministry of Defense to the Controllers of Defense Accounts of various sectors.

The petition states that the said impugned letter can be read along with the order of the Ministry of Defense dated 09.10.2020, in which the soldiers on annual leave have been directed to spend their time in the promotion of government schemes.

What was the demand made in the PIL?

The PIL also attacked the office memorandum dated October 17, 2023, of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Central Government.

DoPT decided to deploy Joint Secretaries/Directors/Deputy Secretaries to the Government of India as ‘District Rathprabharis (Special Officers)’ for the ‘Vikas Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ to showcase/celebrate the achievements of the last nine years of the Government of India.

Through this, it is proposed to be organized across the country from November 20, 2023, to January 25, 2024.

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Use of public servants in campaigning.

Apart from seeking quashing of the letter and office memorandum, the petition also seeks a declaration that no ruling party at the Center or in the state shall directly or indirectly use any public servant for any campaign or publicity.

The petition states that it seeks to enforce ‘the fundamental rights of the people of India under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution from using the civil services and armed forces as a weapon for the election campaign of the ruling political party.

The government’s action of deputing civil servants to showcase achievements not only violates several service rules but also hampers ‘free and fair elections with level playing field, which is an essential part of democracy’.
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