NEW DELHI: The UP government’s Dalit card argument that chief minister Mayawati’s statues were installed in parks to honour BSP founder Kanshi Ram’s last wishes virtually boomeranged as the PIL petitioners wanted to know from the Supreme Court whether public money could be spent to honour a private person’s will.

The state in its response to the PIL, which questioned crores of rupees being spent from the exchequer to install the CM’s statues, had said that Kanshi Ram in his will had said that Maya’s statues should be installed alongside his own. The petitioners, Ravi Kant and Sukumar, argued before a Bench that the gist of the state’s argument was that it was implementing the will of Kanshi Ram.

“Should the state pay for implementation of a private person’s will,” they asked. But senior advocate Harish Salve said, “The issue raised in the PIL is not justiciable in a court of law. The budgetary allocations were passed by the assembly and there is no hint of the sanctioned money being misused. There had been no violation of any law or fundamental rights of the petitioners. How is this PIL maintainable,” he said.