The Delhi High Court today sought response of the Centre and city government on a plea alleging that illegal ration cards were being issued on "bogus identities" created by using Aadhaar numbers of genuine persons.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice G P Mittal issued notice to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution as well as Delhi government and sought their replies by August 12 on the PIL which has claimed that use of the illegal ration cards has caused loss of thousands of crores to the public exchequer.
The court also asked the ministry to inform it on the next date as to what was the situation in other states.
The bench was hearing the petition filed by Shyam Sunder, who runs a book shop and has contended that people whose identities have been used are not aware that ration cards have been issued in their name and ration was being illegally availed at subsidized rates on their behalf.
The plea, filed through advocates Anuj Arya and Ravin Rao, has sought an investigation into the alleged "fraud" in issuance of rations cards and the illegal transactions carried out by using them.
Shyam said he came to know about the alleged scam when he tried to ascertain whether there were any irregularities in issuance of ration cards.
He said that when he entered his Aadhaar number in the 'Track Food Security Application' link on the website of Delhi government's Department of Food, Supplies and Consumer Affairs, he found it was linked to ration card of a woman, Premwati, who was indicated as his mother.
He has said in his plea he had never applied for a ration card or made a food security application and his mother's name was Radha Devi.
"The petitioner (Shyam Sunder) went to Food Corporation of India's office in Narela and found out that the said ration card was used to avail six kgs of rice every month from ration shop for the period of February, 2015 to April, 2015," the petition said.
