RAJESH LAXMICHAND MOTA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this petition in the nature of Public Interest Litigation, the petitioner, a resident of city of Ahmedabad, has prayed for the following reliefs : -

(2.) Facts in brief for the purpose of deciding this petition can be summarised as under : -

(3.) It has been vehemently contended by learned Advocate Ms.Ratna Vora appearing for the petitioner that no Government had a right to say that it will indulge in wasteful expenditure and any attempt to fritter away the State resources could be checked and should be checked by the Court, if moved in that behalf. She would submit that the petitioner is a responsible citizen and is concerned with the wasteful expenditures indulged in by the Government in the name of programmes like ' Sadhbhavana Mission ' and, more particularly, when such programmes are politically motivated and only for the benefit and publicity of a political party. She would further submit that the Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers are trustees of public funds and, as such, they have the obligation to preserve the corpus and to avoid wasteful expenditure, more particularly, when the expenditure is not for the benefit of the subjects of this particular State and is only for political mileage. She would submit that this Court was not powerless to prevent such waste and squandering of public funds and when questioned, it is the duty of the Government to satisfy the Court that the expenses have not been borne from Public Exchequer but from the funds of the political party concerned.