The High Court has made strong remarks on the VIP culture. Justice Ajay Mohan Goel has summoned the reply of the Chief Secretary (CS) on the issue of putting VIP numbers in government vehicles. The court has asked what is the justification for buying VIP numbers of officials with the tax money of common people and what is such an act of virtue that cannot be done without it. The court has summoned this information through an affidavit till December 12.
Justice Goel, in his order, said the court had failed to appreciate what was so special about the numbers 0001 to 0009 that a government vehicle could not run without it. If there is an intention to enrich the exchequer by keeping these numbers reserved for the government only, then in that case the government cannot use the tax money to put preferred numbers on government vehicles.
Petitioner Sanjay Sood has alleged that on the basis of notification issued by the state government on December 26, 2011, he had booked 0006 number for an amount of Rs 50,000, but the department arbitrarily allotted it. On 18 November 2015, the state government, under a notification, reserved all numbers from 0001 to 0009 for government vehicles.
The petitioner has argued that when he had booked 0006 number with an amount of Rs 50,000, then allotting this number to someone else is not justified. It is noteworthy that before the year 2015, a price of Rs 50 thousand was kept for VIP number. The general public could also buy the preferred number after depositing money, but after 2015 all the numbers from 0001 to 0009 have been reserved for government vehicles.
