Aakash goel, Co-education in India

New Delhi, Feb 2 The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Union Finance Ministry to treat as representation a petition seeking prohibition of the use of active Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts as a sole criterion for identification of poor persons for direct bank transfer schemes, including for cash transfers under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana.The petitioner emphasized that an active Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account is a prerequisite for availing benefits of this ex-gratia amount announced by the Union Government, but this is exclusionary as crores of poor women do not possess the account."Consequently, such persons have been rendered ineligible to avail benefits of welfare schemes announced for poor women by the Finance Minister wherein cash would be transferred only in accounts of women who are active PMJDY account holders," the petition filed by one Aakash Goel stated.He sought a direction from the court to amend the eligibility criterion for opening of the PMJDY accounts and include persons who already have other type of accounts so as to enable them to avail benefits of welfare schemes.Counsel for the petitioner submitted that if a woman does not have the Jan Dhan account, but is economically backwards, the benefit of PMJDY should be extended to her. "To that extent, the PMJDY requires amendment."Alluding to data, he said that only 20.51 crore poor women own PMJDY accounts as of April 8, 2020 but in reality, there are over 32.6 crore women living below the poverty line.Hence, more than 37 per cent poor women are excluded from the direct bank transfer scheme if PMJDY accounts are kept as the sole identifying factor for providing welfare schemes."It is not in dispute that despite a comprehensive and large-scale dedicated campaign by the Union Government, a large chunk of population does not have the PMJDY accounts. These persons could not get the PMJDY account," the plea, filed through advocates Mayank Aggarwal and Pradeep Aggarwal stated.The exclusion of the class of poor women not having a PMJDY account from the scheme only on the basis of not having an account is unconstitutional, the petitioner emphasized. "The classification is bad in law because it fails the test for permissible classification."After hearing the contentions of the petitioner, Chief Justice D.N. Patel said, "We direct respondent number 1 (Finance Ministry) or other such authorised authority to treat this petition as representation and decide the grievances in accordance with law, rules, regulation, government policy."( With inputs from IANS )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Home

City

Latest News

Cricket

LT Premium

National

International

Maharashtra

Opinions

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Nagpur

Entertainment

Photos

Business

Technology

Sports

Lifestyle

Social Viral

Lokmat Games

Health

Lok Sabha Election 2024

Ram Navami 2024

Dubai Rains

Maharashtra Lok Sabha Election

IPL 2024

Salman Khan

Aakash GoelFOLLOW

Aakash goel, Latest News

National :HC seeks Delhi Govt's stand on PIL for proper disbursement of Ladli scheme funds

New Delhi [India], May 12 : The Delhi High Court on Friday sought a response from the government of ... ...

Business :Signal-based trading platform Investmint raises USD 2 Million in seed funding led by Nexus Venture Partners

Investmint, a signal-based do-it-yourself trading and investing platform for retail investors, announced that it has raised USD 2 Million in seed funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from other prominent angel investors. ...

Politics :Plea seeks amendment to PMJDY, HC issues directions

New Delhi, Feb 2 The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Union Finance Ministry to ... ...