The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday declined to grant interim relief in a public interest litigation challenging the West Bengal government's decision to verify and delete Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries based on the outcome of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, observing that no affected individual had yet approached the Court alleging deprivation of benefits.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, hearing the PIL filed by Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, an agricultural labourers' union, questioned the maintainability of the petition in the absence of any grievance from persons allegedly affected by the policy.

"Not a single petition has been filed by anyone who is deprived, but your organisation is crying. No grievance has been ventilated by any person before any court so far," the Bench remarked during the hearing.

The petition challenges the State's decision to undertake verification of ration card beneficiaries whose names were deleted or found ineligible during the SIR exercise, contending that exclusion from electoral rolls cannot be made the basis for denial of food security and welfare benefits.

Appearing for the petitioners, Advocate Purbayan Chakraborty submitted that persons were already being deprived of food grains and cash benefits on account of the exercise. He urged the Court to pass an interim order restraining the authorities from deleting beneficiaries pending adjudication of the matter.

"People are being deprived of food and cash benefits. In the meantime please pass some interim order that no names are deleted. They seek to exclude beneficiaries from ration and cash benefits," counsel submitted.

Opposing the plea, Advocate General Surajit Nath Mitra submitted that the verification exercise was subject to enquiry and that no case for interim intervention was made out.

"Everything is subjected to enquiry. If somebody's name is not in the voter list, if a person is dead... their names will have to be removed. Give us some time to issue some instructions. I don't think there is any scope of any interim order," the Advocate General argued.

The Bench did not pass any interim order and directed that the matter be listed for further hearing on July 21.

Background

The PIL comes after the Supreme Court recently declined to entertain a petition under Article 32 challenging the alleged linkage between exclusion from electoral rolls under the SIR exercise and deletion from the ration database. The Supreme Court observed that the issue concerning welfare entitlements constituted a distinct cause of action and granted liberty to the petitioners to approach the Calcutta High Court.

The petitioners contend that the State's exercise of identifying ineligible PDS beneficiaries on the basis of electoral roll revisions is arbitrary and violative of statutory and constitutional protections governing food security. They argue that deletion from the electoral roll does not determine a person's citizenship or eligibility for welfare schemes and cannot lawfully be used as the basis for discontinuing ration or other social welfare benefits