The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition complaining about failure to release ₹5,000 crore towards payment of arrears of two instalments of ₹2,000 each to 1.26 crore women beneficiaries of the flagship Gruha Lakshmi guarantee scheme for the months of February and March 2025, which were withheld due to technical reasons.

A Vacation Division Bench comprising Justice Suraj Govindaraj and Justice K. Manmadha Rao passed the order on the petition filed two labourers, R. Ganga and G.D. Pavithra of Bengaluru.

The petition states that disbursement under the scheme began in August, 2023, and that approximately 1.26 crore beneficiaries had registered by October 2023. It has been pointed out in the petition that 10 instalments were released between April, 2024 and January 2025, after continuation of the programme for 2024-25.

However, the petition complained that payments for February-March 2025 were not released due to an administrative transition in the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism, under which payments were proposed to be routed through taluk panchayats instead of the Department of Women and Child Development.

It has been alleged in the petition that nearly ₹5,000 crore lapsed because the unpaid amounts were not carried forward into the subsequent financial year, and hence remained unpaid event till today.

The petitioners stated that the continued withholding of these two-month arrears has triggered profound financial distress for families belonging to economically weaker sections who rely heavily on this scheme for daily survival.

The petition has sought a direction to keep ₹5,000 crore in an escrow account till the arrangements are made for disbursal.