Akhilesh gets Mercedes, Land Cruisers, but cuts budget for women's panel

July 16, 2014

Lucknow, Jul 16: As women’s safety continues to be a cause for concern in Uttar Pradesh, here’s a shocker: An activist has found that the Akhilesh Yadav government has drastically downsized the budget of the state women’s commission but has the money for two seven-seater Mercedes cars and two Land Cruisers.

A Right to Information (RTI) question posed by social activist Urvashi Sharma revealed that through the last three years, the Samajwadi Party government has slashed the budgetary allocations made to the state women’s commission.

The state government informed that between 2011-12 and 2013-14, the budget of the women’s panel was cut by over 85 per cent. In 2011-12, the commission got Rs 5.1 crore in financial grants and this went down to Rs 4.16 crore, of which Rs 3.9 crore was spent. In 2013-14, the allocation was further slashed to a mere Rs 75 lakh.

Urvashi Sharma said she was “amazed” at the replies to her petition. “This is the state of affairs in a government where no one, from the top political leadership to the bureaucracy, misses any chance to hype their pro-women image,” she rued.

Sharma wondered if there were financial constraints and if that was the case from where the government finding money for the Mercedes and the Land Cruisers for the 41-year-old chief minister, who is currently on a family holiday in London.

“This is simply bizarre and shocking,” said women’s rights activist Neelam Ranjan. She said the Samajwadi Party had always had a “pathetic” record in women’s empowerment.

“Though I find this budget cut shocking, coming from the Samajwadi government, the pain is minimised because it is a government where its national president calls rape “Small mistake”, its chief minister refuses to visit rape victims and a minister says he cannot have gun-toting security for every woman in the state,” Ranjan said.

Vijay Bahadur Pathak, state spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party, slammed the budget cuts, and said the government had no concern for the people, especially women.

“The lesser said about this government, the better. There is a yawning gap between its promises and delivery,” Pathak said.

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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