The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government and the Election Commission to respond to a fresh petition challenging the practice of political parties promising “freebies” during elections, PTI reported.

Social welfare schemes such as free public transport and concessions in electricity bills are referred to as “freebies” by some.

The notice to the Union government and the poll panel was issued by a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra in response to a petition filed by Bengaluru resident Shashank J Sreedhara.

“The unregulated promise of freebies imposes a significant and unaccounted financial burden on the public exchequer,” claimed the petition, PTI reported. “Further, there exists no mechanism to ensure the fulfilment of pre-poll promises on which votes were secured.”

The petitioner has also sought directions to the Election Commission to take steps to stop political parties from promising freebies in the run-up to elections.

The court tagged the plea with other petitions on similar matters.

In August 2022, the court had referred another petition seeking restrictions on freebies by political parties to a three-judge bench.

The plea was filed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwini Upadhyay, seeking directions to the Election Commission to bar political parties from promising certain social welfare benefits that he described as freebies.

While hearing the matter, the Supreme Court had suggested the formation of an expert body comprising stakeholders from the government, the NITI Aayog, the Finance Commission, the Law Commission, the Election Commission, the Reserve Bank of India and members of the Opposition to provide suggestions on the matter.

At the time, the Centre had told the court that political parties offering freebies to voters would hurt the economy.

NV Ramana, the chief justice at the time, had said that the court’s main concern was that largesse in the form of freebies should not bleed the economy dry. He said that the Supreme Court had proposed the formation of a committee to collect the “experience and wisdom” of ordinary citizens and place a study before Parliament.

Several political parties filed intervention applications before the court, arguing that social welfare schemes cannot be described as freebies.

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