Plea on grant to Sanawar school turned down
Thursday, 17/01/2013
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130117/punjab.htm#3
Chandigarh : Less than three months after the donation of Rs 1 crore to one of the oldest boarding school of the country, Lawrence School Sanawar, came under the judicial scanner, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissed a petition challenging the grant, observing that “all these issues need to be debated by the legislature and are to be left to its wisdom.”
The verdict on the petition filed in public interest by former MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira came soon after the Punjab Government questioned the powers of courts to decide whether a grant by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to his alma mater was given for some “public purpose”.
The government had conceded that the donation was not strictly within the ambit of Punjab Nirman Programme but had said that the state government had unbridled powers to give grants for any purpose and that the courts could not sit in judgment as to whether a particular grant had been given for any public purpose.
Appearing before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, Advocate-General Ashok Aggarwal had argued that “ the state government has been conferred the power under Article 282 of the Constitution to spend money on any public purpose and the issue as to whether or not the expenditure was made on public purpose can only be debated and tested in the state assembly. High Courts cannot interfere in such matters under their power of judicial review. Such expenditure can be made outside the state also...”
Khaira had contended that funds for Punjab Nirman Programme had been approved by the Vidhan Sabha for specified activities within Punjab.
