'Public Money Misused By State Govt': Rajasthan HC Halts Grant Of Scholarship To Students With Over ₹25 Lakh Annual Family Income

The Rajasthan High Court in an interim order has restrained the State government from granting benefits of Swami Vivekanand Scholarship for High Studies (earlier known as Rajiv Gandhi Scholarship) to any candidates falling under the E3 category having annual family income of more than 25 lakhs, till further orders.The court said so after noting that "millions of rupees" from government exchequer have been given in the name of such Scholarships to candidates having rich & wealthy parents depriving those needy, poor and scholar candidates who are outstanding in their studies. The high court further said that it "cannot shut and close its eyes to such discretionary functioning of the Government and its officials who are misusing the public money and government exchequer in the name of granting Scholarships to those, who are not in fact entitled to receive the same".Expressing pain at the situation, Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand in his order said:"this court feels pain to observe that hard earned money of the taxpayers is misused by the Government of Rajasthan by giving the benefit of Scholarship under this Scheme known as “Swami Vivekananda Scholarship Scheme” (previously known as “Rajiv Gandhi Scholarship scheme). The benefit of this Scheme under E3 Category has been claimed by most of the candidates, who are well–off and their family is earning sufficient amount of annual income. It appears that this Scheme has been prepared for giving benefit to certain class of persons, whose annual income is more than Rs.25 lakhs. No merit criteria has been fixed for getting the benefit of E3 category. By granting the benefit of the Scheme, in huge amount, to such Category of candidates having no merit or excellent academic record would frustrate the very purpose of Scholarship...Millions of rupees have been given in the name of such Scholarships to those candidates of the rich & wealthy parents who are in fact, not in need to receive the same. By getting the benefits of such Scholarships by those candidates, they are actually depriving those needy, poor and scholar candidates who are outstanding in their studies, whose academic record is excellent and who want to pursue their higher studies in renowned University/ College in the nation and across the world. But, they have been deprived to get the benefits of the same because these scholarships are given to the wards of the wealthy, rich and influential parents". Taking a serious note of this situation, the court took judicial notice of "misuse of the public money by the respondents in the garb of Scholarships".It thus directed the respondents to submit detail response to the issue that why this Scheme should not be stopped and/ or closed to stop the misuse of the public money and government exchequers."Until further orders, the respondents are restrained to grant the benefits of this Scholarship Scheme to any candidates, falling under E3 category," the court said. The court thus rejected a plea moved by a candidate whose name appeared in the selected list of candidates under the scholarship; later it was revealed that her brother had also gotten benefit under this scheme in a previous year, but under E2 category based on a higher annual family income as compared to what was declared by the petitioner.The scholarship was an initiative of the state of Rajasthan for providing financial aid to students aspiring to pursue their higher studies at foreign universities. Three income categories were defined under this scholarship on the basis of annual family income, based on which the benefits under the scheme were provided. E1- Annual family income of less than 8 lakhs; E2- Annual family income between 8 lakhs to 25 lakhs; E3- Annual family income of more than 25 lakhs. Owing to this discrepancy, the State sought an expert opinion from a Chartered Accountant who adjudged the annual family income of the petitioner to be much higher than 8 lakhs. In this light, the State could not grant her benefit under the E1 category. After hearing contentions and perusing records, the court highlighted the importance of scholarships and observed that since education had become one of the most valuable and costly things in today's times, scholarships were most preferred kind of financial help. More than financial aids, these were life changing opportunities. The Court stated that it had no reason to doubt the expert opinion of the Chartered Accountant, and no illegality was committed by the State in reverting back the application to the Selection Committee in light of the revealed discrepancy. It was highlighted that in the present case, the scholarship application of the petitioner was reverted back to the selection committee on the same day when the final selection list was issued. Post this, there were several correspondence between the petitioner and the State regarding the discrepancy. However, nowhere any assurance was given by the State to the...

'Public Money Misused By State Govt': Rajasthan HC Halts Grant Of Scholarship To Students With Over ₹25 Lakh Annual Family Income

Nupur Agrawal

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