All claims were false, baseless in petition relating to Farishtey scheme: L-G office

“Withdrawal of a writ petition in the Supreme Court regarding the ‘Farishtey scheme’ is an admission that all claims were false, baseless and intended to malign Lieutenant Governor’s office,” Raj Niwas officials said on Friday.

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The writ petition filed in the Supreme Court by Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj regarding the ‘Farishtey scheme’ against the L-G office was withdrawn.

“Fearing that the AAP government’s lies will be exposed in the Supreme Court, Bhardwaj did not press for the petition on Thursday,” officials said.

The AAP government had approached the apex court in 2023 against the L-G over the implementation of the scheme. It had claimed that the scheme was humanitarian, which was to provide free-of-cost treatment in road accidents. In its petition, it had said that the officers were creating obstruction in the implementation of the scheme and the funds were not being released.

On Thursday, senior advocate Shadan Farasat representing the Delhi Government before the Bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Vishwanathan said the funds were now being released. The court then disposed of the case.

As per the affidavit submitted by the L-G office, the writ petition was aimed at maligning the L-G office, stemmed from concealment of material facts and had been filed without any cause of action only to build up a narrative against the L-G office.

“The withdrawal of the writ petition by Saurabh Bhardwaj in the SC vindicates what the L-G office had said and proves that all along he had been indulging in pointless and malicious blame game and was a ‘classic example of dragging politics into the court’,” an official said.

Officials pointed that the total number of beneficiaries under the scheme during 2022-23 was 3,698 and the same stood at 3,604 till October in 2023-24 when the writ petition was moved.

“Payments of Rs 4.85 crore during 2022-23 and Rs 4.98 crore till February 12 in 2023-24 were made to private hospitals under the scheme. These figures prima facie neither indicate a ‘halt’ in the ‘Farishtey scheme’ nor do they support ‘non-payment’ allegations made by Saurabh Bhardwaj,” the official added.