Telangana High Court lifts stay on one of eight G.O.s related to Kalyana Lakshmi, Shadi Mubarak

On Monday, the Telangana High Court lifted the stay order on one of the eight Government Orders (G.O.s) related to the Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes, which provide financial assistance to unmarried women. The stay order against the remaining seven G.O.s, however, will remain in place for an additional two weeks. Justice N.V.

Shravan Kumar, who issued the interim stay order, did not vacate the stay order for all eight G.O.s. The financial assistance scheme faced a challenge from an advocate, Vijay Gopal, who argued that the government needed to maintain fiscal balance. He also contended that the government had no legal basis for implementing the schemes, which provided financial assistance based on different sections of unmarried women.

The judge allowed petitions filed by two All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLAs, Majid Hussain and Ahmed Bin Abdullah Balala, to be impleaded in the case. During the arguments, the judge questioned the Additional Advocate General Mohammed Imran Khan about the role of legislators in the distribution of cheques issued under the schemes, expressing concern that the implementation had taken on a political aspect due to their involvement.

The judge instructed the government to delegate the responsibility of distributing the cheques to authorities rather than legislators. The lawyers representing the MLAs argued that the petition was filed with a biased motive and that the scheme benefitted unmarried women from underprivileged and lower strata of society.