States » SouthPosted at: Nov 5 2026 7:56PM


Karnataka govt admits fund crunch in High Court

Bengaluru, Nov 5 (UNI) The Karnataka government's admission before the High Court that financial constraints prevented the release of two months' Gruha Lakshmi assistance has provided fresh ammunition to the BJP, with Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya accusing the Congress government of misleading the Assembly by previously blaming technical glitches for the delay.
The government, in its statement of objections filed before the High Court, has acknowledged that the February and March 2025 instalments under the flagship welfare scheme were not released because the Finance Department did not sanction the required funds due to financial constraints.
The admission assumes significance as the then Women and Child Welfare Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar had attributed the delay to technical glitches while responding to the issue in the Legislative Assembly in December 2025. She had subsequently apologised for an incorrect reply and acknowledged that the two months' assistance had not reached beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer.
Targeting the Congress government over the apparent contradiction, Surya said the explanation had shifted from technical glitches in the Assembly to financial constraints before the court.
“In December 2025, then Minister for Women and Child Welfare Laxmi Hebbalkar blamed, on the Assembly floor, technical glitches for unpaid Gruha Lakshmi dues. In November 2026, her own Government cites 'financial constraints' in court, contradicting her statement. Servers never crashed. The State's finances did! Need more proofs that this is a zero-balance, Pauper Sarkara!?” he posted on X.
Surya also shared the government's statement of objections filed in response to a petition by R Ganga and others challenging the non-payment of the two instalments.
In a significant defence, the state government has argued that Gruha Lakshmi, though a benevolent welfare programme aimed at empowering women, does not confer an enforceable legal right on beneficiaries to demand monthly assistance.
It submitted that proposals for releasing the February and March 2025 instalments had been forwarded to the Finance Department but the grants could not be released because of financial constraints.
The government further contended that the implementation of the scheme was subject to administrative exigencies and that the doctrine of legitimate expectation could not be invoked to claim an indefeasible right to financial assistance when the state was unable to release funds.
Seeking dismissal of the petition, it maintained that assistance under a welfare scheme could not be claimed as a matter of right or secured solely through judicial intervention.
The government's position puts the spotlight on the gap between the political promise of guaranteed monthly assistance and its legal stand on the enforceability of such payments.
Gruha Lakshmi, one of the Congress government's five pre-poll guarantees, provides Rs 2,000 monthly to women heads of households and has around 1.24 crore enrolled beneficiaries.
The February and March 2025 payments remain at the centre of the controversy, which had earlier triggered a confrontation between the ruling Congress and the BJP in the Assembly.
UNI BDN
Tags: #Karnataka govt admits fund crunch in High Court
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