Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has got a big relief from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has disposed of the PIL filed against him and his party’s symbol elephant statues being made by spending crores of rupees from the government treasury during his tenure as Chief Minister. The Supreme Court has stopped hearing on the petition filed against Mayawati. A petition was filed regarding this in 2009. She was the Chief Minister of the state then.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma, while disposing of the petition filed by two lawyers Ravikant and Sukumar, said that most of the petitions have become infructuous.
The bench said that the Election Commission (EC) has already issued guidelines on this issue and the installation of the statues cannot be banned as they have already been installed.
Murthy was accused of wasting money
The public interest litigation (PIL), filed by lawyers, had alleged that a total of Rs 2,000 crore from the state budget for 2008-09 and 2009-10 was used only to erect statues of Mayawati and the election symbol elephant at different places. Was to establish.
Mayawati had justified her decision
The petition, filed through advocate Prakash Kumar Singh, claimed that the installation of 60 elephant statues at a cost of Rs 52.2 crore is not only a waste of public money but is also contrary to the circular issued by the Election Commission. On April 2, 2019, Mayawati had justified her decision and told the top court that the construction of her life-size statues and BSP’s election symbol at various places in Uttar Pradesh during her tenure as Chief Minister of the state was in accordance with the ‘wish of the people’. ‘ represents.
Cited statues installed by other governments
He told the court that Congress has also in the past installed statues of its leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao across the country. He also mentioned recent examples of state governments installing statues, including the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, known as the ‘Statue of Unity’, in Gujarat.
Apart from this, the BSP supremo had said that the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government has constructed a 221 meter high statue of Lord Ram in Ayodhya with the government treasury. He said, ‘Thus, construction of monuments and installation of statues is not a new phenomenon in India.’
“Similarly, other political parties in power at the Center and in the states have also from time to time installed statues of various other leaders in public places with funds from the government treasury, but neither the media nor Only the petitioners have raised any questions regarding them.
The court had asked to deposit the money in the government treasury
On February 8, 2019, the court had said that Mayawati should deposit the amount of public money used in making statues of herself and her party’s election symbol in the state treasury.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister had sought dismissal of the petition alleging misuse of public money, saying it was ‘politically motivated’ and a gross abuse of the process of court.
