The Supreme Court on Monday decided to go ahead with hearing a suit filed by the State of Kerala against the Centre for “arbitrarily” interfering in its financial affairs, after talks between the two failed to resolve their differences.
Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for Kerala, informed that the Centre wanted it to withdraw the suit in return for giving ₹11,000 crore.
“We are already entitled to this amount. Our immediate need is for about ₹24,000 crore,” Mr. Sibal argued.
However, Additional Solicitor General N. Venkataraman, for the Union government, said it was willing to cross all parameters and guidelines in the “spirit of cooperative federalism” to help Kerala. If so, the law officer said, the Centre’s helping hand for Kerala would go up to ₹48,049 crore.
“But you [Kerala] cannot talk and also litigate,” he submitted.
Mr. Sibal said Kerala was one of the leading States in human development indices. Its expenditure was mainly in sectors of health and education.
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‘Financial emergency’
The senior lawyer said the Centre was pushing Kerala to a state of “financial emergency”.
The court listed the case for hearing on March 6 and 7.
In an unvarnished attack, Kerala has accused the Centre of adopting policies and making amendments in law devised to push States to a state of penury.
The Centre had hit back by accusing Kerala of being “one of the most financially unhealthy States”. A note submitted by the Attorney General in the apex court had said the “fiscal edifice of Kerala has been diagnosed with several cracks”. The Centre had said the poor financial indicators of Kerala point to a “lack of proper management of its public finances”.
