DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUBSTITUTION AND MODIFICATION OF GOVERNMENT SCHEMES

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• Highlighting the difference between substitution and modification, the Madras High Court has ruled that if a government scheme gets substituted by a new scheme, the old scheme cannot resurrect after a court of law strikes down the substitution.
• On the other hand, a modified scheme will certainly revert to its old position if the modification is struck down.
• Justices R. Subramanian and K. KumareshBabu agreed with Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram that if the court was convinced about a government scheme having been actually modified and not substituted, then as a necessary corollary, the original scheme should be considered to have revived after the modification was held to be invalid by the court.
• Drawing an analogy, the judges referred to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 which was amended to make daughters too as coparceners (a person who has equal share in inheritance).
• “Assuming that the amendment is challenged and the challenge is upheld, only the amendments that would go out of the statute, the original section would prevail,” they said.
• Authoring the judgment for the Division Bench, Justice Subramanian went on to write:
• “If we are to conclude that once the amendments are struck down the original provision will also stand effaced, the same would lead to an anomalous situation and absolute lawlessness.”
• He likened the amendment to modifications made in government schemes.
• The verdict was delivered while dismissing a writ appeal preferred by a private bus operator seeking stage carriage licence for operating a bus between Berigai to Anchetti (through Nagalur, Hosur, Kelamangamalam and Denkanikota) in Krishnagiri district which was formed in 2004 by bifurcating Dharmapuri district.
• The appellant contended that a government scheme formulated under the Motor Vehicles Act for Dharmapuri district in 1999 would not apply to Krishnagiri district and hence, there was no bar for issuing stage carriage licence.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB