Claims of development and high per capita income contradict high BPL population: Supreme Court

Supreme Court questions high development claims, per capita income, and distribution of food grains to poor in India.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (March 19, 2025) questioned the claims of high development rate and per capita income when certain States have about 70% of their population living below poverty line, and wondered whether distribution schemes of subsidised essential food grains really reached the poor in the country.

“There are States which utilise or project the development card, saying our per capita income is high, we have progressed so well, but we find that 70% of their population are declared below poverty line (BPL)... How can these two factors go together? There is an inherent contradiction if 70% people are BPL and still you claim a high per capita income,” Justice Surya Kant, heading a Bench, observed orally.

The apex court wondered whether the subsidised ration system, meant to provide food security to the deserving poor, was merely a ploy by governments to garner popularity.

The court was hearing petitions seeking ration cards for migrant workers to ensure food security.

The court had been passing a slew of directions, right from the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, to authorities to undertake welfare measures, including distributing ration cards to migrant workers registered with the e-Shram portal.

Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl D’Souza, appearing for activists Anjali Bhardwaj, Harsh Mander, and Jagdeep Chhokar, said the contradiction arose from the growing level of inequality.

“The level of inequality has gone up so much that a few people are worth lakhs of crores while a vast majority survive on ₹30 and ₹40 a day,” Mr. Bhushan said.