Hyderabad: Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a special leave petition (SLP) filed by Hyderabad-based advocate Vijay Gopal challenging a Telangana high court division bench order that stayed a single judge’s interim order on govt-sponsored Shaadi Mubarak and Kalyana Lakshmi schemes.
The apex court said the matter should preferably be placed before a bench presided over by the chief justice or the acting chief justice of the high court. In Aug, a single judge had stayed the two welfare schemes. Appearing before Supreme Court in person, Vijay Gopal argued that he had filed the appeal challenging the constitutional vires (validity) of the state-sponsored schemes aimed at providing financial relief to young women towards their marriage.
Later in Sept, when the state govt challenged it before the division bench, it ordered a stay on the single judge’s interim order allowing the schemes to continue. At the same time, the apex court directed that writ petition, which was stated to have been filed in the public interest and was pending before the high court, should be listed for hearing before a division bench. The court’s direction means that while the special leave petition would not be entertained further, the related public interest litigation, pending before the high court, would continue to be heard by a division bench of the high court.