New Delhi, Feb 12: The Supreme Court on Wednesday flagged the distribution of freebies, saying that because of these freebies, people are not willing to work.

“Unfortunately, because of these freebies, the people are not willing to work. They are getting free rations and money without doing any work! Because of these freebies, people do not want to work,” remarked Justice B.R. Gavai from his "personal experiences" as the Bench, also comprising Justice A.G. Masih, was dealing with a petition raising the lack of sufficient number of night shelters to house the urban homeless in the national capital.

“Rather than permitting them to be a part of the mainstream society by contributing to the development of the nation, are we not creating a class of parasites?” further remarked Justice Gavai as the Centre informed the apex court that the Union government was framing schemes to help alleviate urban poverty, including shelter facilities for the urban homeless.

The Justice Gavai-led Bench directed the Centre to file an affidavit in six weeks, detailing the time required to finalise and implement the schemes on urban poverty alleviation.

Further, it asked Attorney General R. Venkataramani to verify statistics relied upon by the petitioner side with regard to the number of homeless persons.

The apex court stressed on balancing the right to shelter and food and the need to integrate homeless persons in mainstream society so they can contribute to the growth of the nation.

The issue of "freebies" is already being dealt with by the apex court in the Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay case.

In the pending case filed by advocate Upadhyay against poll freebies, the Supreme Court had remarked that lucrative promises announced by political parties may push states towards imminent bankruptcy and referred the matter to a three-judge bench.

In the 2013 Subramanian Balaji vs Tamil Nadu case, the top court held that distribution of free colour TV sets by the DMK after winning the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections could not be called a "corrupt" practice.

--IANS

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