Supreme Court asks Delhi LG to respond on plea related to Farishtey scheme

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked Delhi's Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena to file a response on a plea questioning stopping of funds for the Delhi government’s 'Farishtey Dilli Ke' scheme promising free medical treatment for road accident victims.

As LG's counsel said he had nothing to do with the scheme as funds were released by the Health Minister, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said, “If we find the minister has taken us for a ride, we will impose exemplary cost,” the bench said.

At the outset, the bench orally told senior advocate Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Delhi LG, "Ask your LG not to make every issue a prestige issue”.

Jain, for his part, submitted that this petition is a classic case of a storm in a tea cup as it was much ado about nothing.

The bench asked LG to file an affidavit in two weeks after Jain contended that the client's office was not involved in the matter.

Jain claimed that the LG is not involved in the matter and the scheme is run by a society headed by the Delhi health minister.

He said that the Health Minister conducted a meeting on January 2 and released the funds.

“It is not a matter where there was an issue between the Council of Ministers and LG,” Jain said.

The bench, however, asked him to file an affidavit to this effect.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and advocate Shadan Farasat, for the Delhi government, replied that the position will be clear once the affidavit is filed. Singhvi said the court may reserve its observations till the reply is filed.

On December 8, 2023, the court had issued notice to LG’s office and others on a plea by the AAP government for release of funds for its ‘Farishtey Dilli Ke’ scheme. The scheme provides free treatment to accident victims.

The bench had said, “We don’t understand this, one wing of the government is fighting with another wing of the government”.

The ‘Farishtey Dilli Ke’ scheme encourages people to rescue road accident victims. The government, under the scheme, foots hospital bills of those who have met with accidents in the city.

The plea contended that hospitals are now reluctant to accept accident victims and this scheme has practically become defunct for more than a year since payments to the majority of the hospitals have not been made. The plea sought immediate re-operationalisation of the scheme by clearing pending bills, releasing timely payments to private hospitals and initiating disciplinary action against officials responsible for deliberately orchestrating the “de-operationalisation” of the scheme.