Distribute grain to Murbad tribals by November 4, Bombay High Court orders state

A Murbad tribal family

Promising a brighter Diwali for several tribal families from Murbad, who had been denied food grain over Aadhaar linkage, the Bombay High Court has ordered the state to give them ration under the Food Security Act and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana before Thursday. Citing Citing the central notifications and Supreme Court's Aadhar judgment, the court said people from marginalised communities cannot be faulted for technical issues.

Hailing the HC order, Indavi Tulpule of Shramik Mukti Sanghatana, the organisation that helped the tribals to move the court, said that the district supply officer had on February 21 told all tehsils that Aadhaar linkage was a pre-condition for beneficiaries to avail free food grain from the government. Between June and September, she said, 350 ration cardholders had complained to the Murbad and Shahapur tehsils about the denial of food grains.

Indavi Tulpule who helped the tribals with the case

"When their cries went unheard, a writ petition was filed in the HC. The judges rightly pointed out to the state that these entitlements are not charity or doles but are for food security of the marginalised families," she said. She said several factors hamper Aadhaar linkage. While fingerprints can get distorted due to age, accident or work, iris authentication doesn't succeed all the time. Lack of Aadhaar cards, no internet at fair price shops, names missing from ration cards and change in the address are other reasons, she said. "As per details compiled by the Shramik Mukti Sanghatna, children have been impacted the most due to denial of rations in Murbad and Shahpur talukas," she said.

"One of the major problems faced is that there is no free Aadhaar facilitation centre in the entire Murbad tehsil. And the two paid centers (charging minimum Rs 100) is located around 20 to 40 km from the tribal belt, which means the transportation cost would itself be around Rs 200 extra. Since these tribals do not have a fixed source of income, they usually cannot afford such expenses," said Tulpule. She added, "If the state/Centre mandates Aadhaar linkage to the RCMS [Ration Card Management System] they should have provided an Aadhaar facilitation centre for free at a convenient location."

The family of Bhau Rama Kawate (white shirt), who is petitioner no. 3, of Bharechiwadi taluka in Murbad

"The Bombay High court order dated October 29 though refers to the Murbad case, we are hoping that the district and state administration would take cognisance of the same and implement food security schemes at other tribal areas within Maharashtra, where similar issues, might be ignored by the district officials," said Tulpule. However, the authorities were yet to give the ratio till Tuesday afternoon, she said. "We will wait until November 4 as per the directives of the court and then take appropriate steps, if the district administration fails to acknowledge and act on it," she said.

Why the tribals moved HC

In their petition, the tribals, belonging to Scheduled Tribes, told the HC that they were denied their food entitlements, mandated by the National Food Security Act, 2013, citing non-linking of Aadhaar with ration cards. In the case of petitioner no 1 - Ganpat Dharma Mengal of Sisewadi, Jhadgar, Murbad - his wife Shalu Mengal and son Mohan were denied ration on the grounds of incorrect address data. The family was told it was their responsibility to have the corrections affected. Petitioner 2 - Prakash Hari Padir of Durgapur, Post Dhasai, Murbad, struggled to get the names of his mother, wife and their children added to the ration card in the absence of Aadhaar. He said authorities were not all cooperative.

Ganpat Mengal, petitioner no. 1 from Murbad, whose family was denied ration over non-linkage of Aadhaar to state's PDS database

Only six of the 11 members of the family of petitioner 3 - Bhau Rama Kavte of Sonawale, Bharechiwadi Taluka, Murbad - were getting ration. Citing a Government Resolution, the Murbad Tehsildar said Aadhaar was a must for his children to avail food grains. Tulpule said officials documents at the district supply office in Thane showed that the collector had asked officials to desist from giving food grains through offline methods.

HC observation

"It is a disheartening situation for us when we the fortunates are eagerly awaiting as the festive season is approaching and the festival of lights would spread joy and happiness in the society throughout the State or the whole nation, here are the few petitioners who are the members of the marginalised section in general and tribals in particular who have approached this Court on a grievance that they are deprived of the basic requirement of human life, i.e., food, only on account that the State machinery is not technically equipped to give them the benefits flowing from the scheme formulated and floated by the Union of India and to be implemented and executed by the respective States," the court observed. The HC cited the "Aadhaar Card Judgment" of the Supreme Court to stress that "dignity is an integral element of natural law and an inalienable constitutional construct".

Court order

In their order, a divisional bench of Justices Prasanna Varale and Madhav Jamdar stated, "...As we are unable to find any logic, reason or rationale for denying the benefits of distribution of foodgrains to the Petitioners and alike persons raising certain technical ground by the Respondent authorities, by way of interim direction we direct the Respondent nos. 1, 2 and 3 (Tahsildar, Murbad, District Supply officer, Thane and Collector, Thane) to distribute the foodgrains to the Petitioners and similarly circumstanced persons - the tribal beneficiaries of Murbad taluka under the public distribution scheme as well as the provisions of the National Food Security Act and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana."

The order added, "We further direct Respondent Nos.1 and 2 to distribute the foodgrains to the tribal persons before 4th November 2021 and Respondent No.3- Collector Thane shall implement, supervise the distribution and shall assure that the order of this Court is duly complied with within the stipulated period." The matter will be heard next on December 1.