The court rejected a PIL challenging chief minister Narendra Modi’s Sadbhavana fasts across the state and the huge expenditure made on them.
Gujarat high court on Tuesday rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging chief minister Narendra Modi’s Sadbhavana fasts across the state and the huge expenditure made on them, saying ‘Sadbhavana’ was launched for goodwill and in good faith.
A bench consisting of acting chief justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JB Pardiwala said: “If such questions are allowed to be raised before court, every expenditure of the state can be called in question, both as to the nature and extent thereof, in which event the functioning of the government itself will be hampered.”
Regarding court’s jurisdiction, the bench said: “Judicial interference is permissible when the action of the government is unconstitutional and not when such action is not wise or that the extent of expenditure is not for good of the state. All such questions must be thrashed out in the legislature and not in courts.” The court also set aside the contention of the petitioner that the Sadbhavana fasts were politically motivated. The court observed: “Assuming for the moment that a government is indirectly canvassing solely in the interest of the political ideology to which it belongs, even then this court, in exercise of its power under Article 226 of the Constitution, would not undertake judicial review of such a programme.”
Defining the word ‘Sadbhavana’ the court said: “Sadbhavana, as the name denotes, is a programme launched by the state government for goodwill or in good faith.”
The court further said, “It appears that under the programme, the chief minister decided to visit different places all over the state and meet people at large.
As a part of the programme, the people of different regions within the state are being apprised of the work undertaken by the government according to their political manifesto and also to apprise the citizens as to what the state government intends to do in future for the welfare of the people.”
One Rajesh Mota had filed the PIL challenging Sadbhavana fasts on the ground that, the government had organised such fasts to get political gain and huge expenditure had been made on the events. The counsel for the petitioner, Ratna Vora, said: “We will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.”
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