Cancellation of ration cards a serious issue: SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Central government on a plea regarding cancellation of around 30 million ration cards across India between 2013 and 2016, leading to alleged denial of rations and starvation deaths. Appearing for petitioner Koili Devi, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves claimed that around three crore ration cards of poor people were cancelled by authorities across the country as they were not linked with Aadhaar cards and the petitioner’s 13-year-old girl died of starvation in September 2017 after they were denied ration. When the bench, which also included justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, suggested that the issue could be heard by respective high courts, Gonsalves pointed out that the proceedings before the top court were justified since ration cards were cancelled at the central level due to the Aadhaar linkage process initiated by the Centre. During a hearing on February 24, the Centre had denied allegations of starvation deaths in Jharkhand and arbitrary cancellation of ration cards across the country, pointing out the cancellation between 2013 to 2016 pertained to ‘ghost’ ration cards.