Petitioner, having competitive interest, not entitled to maintain petition in public interest: DB

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: A Division Bench of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal while dismissing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Aman Satya Kachroo Trust, observed that petitioner being a prospective candidate having personal interest in establishment of OSCs in Jammu & Kashmir and having competitive interest, is not entitled to maintain a petition like this in public interest.
When PIL came-up for hearing, the DB observed that a committee constituted under chairmanship of Justice J S Verma (former Chief Justice of India) in wake of Nirbaya’s case made certain recommendations especially for formulating schemes to provide women easy access to justice; access to Government services as well as access to welfare schemes of both Central and State Governments. All these schemes were to be funded fully by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) from out of ‘Nirbaya Fund’.
DB further observed that petitioner is a Trust alleged to have been registered in Delhi in 2009. The said Trust, through its Founder Trustee Prof Rajendar Kumar Kachroo has preferred the writ petition in public interest seeking direction for constitution of a committee under the leadership of Chairperson, State Legal Service Authority (SLSA) to provide directions and guidance to Department of Social Welfare J&K, in implementation of all women related schemes in J&K, particularly, WHL & OSC. Secondly, directions were sought for Ministry of Women and Child Development to assess whether the schemes of WHL and OSC in J&K are being implemented as per the guidelines and lastly to allow petitioner to make submissions before the Ministry of Women and Child Development in context of implementation of aforementioned schemes in J&K. It was averred that the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, is the architect of the Schemes WHL and OSC and provides for the guidelines of their implementation. The aforesaid schemes are to be implemented by the Department of Women and Child Development, J&K. The petitioner admitted that WHL and seven OSCs in the districts of Jammu, Srinagar, Kathua, Doda, Rajouri, Anantnag and Kupwara are operational in J&K. Out of these OSCs, the petitioner is managing the OSCs at Jammu and Srinagar whereas four separate Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have been selected to operate OSCs of Kathua, Doda, Anantnag and Kupwara.
DB further observed that the petition has not been filed in public interest rather for espousing the petitioner’s personal commercial interest. The petitioner has filed more than fifteen petitions including the contempt petitions with the object of forcing the Union Territory Government to allot all contracts for implementation of the above schemes to it in every district. The petitioner aims to monopolize OSCs by conveying that no other agency/NGO has the capability and expertise to run them other than it. The respondents have also stated that as per guidelines for the implementation of the OSCs issued by the Government of India in 2015, the proposal to set up OSCs have to be submitted to the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the funds for the purpose would be transferred directly to the District Magistrate(s)/ District Commissioner(s) by the Government of India. The erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir vide Government Order dated 08.09.2016 constituted two committees namely, ‘State Steering and Managing Committee’ and ‘District Level Management Committee’ to monitor the functioning and over all working of the OSCs. The first Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Administrative Secretary, Social Welfare Department who has to submit report after evaluating the functioning of OSCs every six months. The other Committee at the district level is under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner and has to scrutinize and monitor the OSC in the district.
In order to operationalize OSCs in remaining twelve districts, the Committee selected the petitioner to run all of them. However, the petitioner failed to comply with the terms and conditions of empanelment within the time which led to cancellation of its contract. Thus, the matter with regard of establishment of twelve, OSCs could not be finalized as the matter is sub-judice before the court. The petitioner himself is responsible for the non-implementation of the OSCs in the remaining twelve districts of Jammu and Kashmir. However, in public interest, the Government of India handed over the charge of the twelve OSCs in the said districts of Jammu and Kashmir to the officials of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) as a measure of interim arrangement. In this way, in every district of Jammu and Kashmir, OSCs are operational. The centers working under interim arrangement are being managed by the Social Welfare District Officer. The Centers lack integration with the Toll Free Service -181 Women Help Line as the same is being controlled by the petitioner. The petitioner itself is a hurdle in fully operationalizing OSCs and their integration with the WHL.
Observing that respondents are not to be guided by any third party such as the petitioner in the matter of implementation of the WHL and OSCs and have to act only in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Government of India, the DB observed that petitioner cannot demand that the Ministry be guided by its suggestions or submissions. “Court is of the view that the petitioner, being a prospective candidate having personal interest in the establishment of OSCs in Jammu and Kashmir and having competitive interest is not entitled to maintain a petition like this in public interest. The writ petition otherwise also lacks merit and it is, accordingly, dismissed,” the Court directed.