The orders were passed after the AG said the single judge’s direction could lead to a spate of writ petitions seeking retrospective benefit and the state would not be able to bear the financial burden. | Photo credit: M. SATHYAMOORTHY
A Division Bench of the Madras High Court set aside the order of a single judge on 12 August 2024, which held that the 2011 Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Marriage Assistance Scheme (popularly known as the Thalikku Thangam scheme) should be extended to all those earning up to ₹100 per month and no income below ₹12,6000 per month.
First Division Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan agreed with Advocate General (AG) PS Raman that the single judge should not have expanded the scope of the writ before him and ordered that the beneficiaries of the government’s scheme for providing gold during marriage to young women be determined under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
“We are of the view that the direction issued by the learned single judge was not only beyond the scope of the proposal but also amounted to substituting one executive policy for another,” the Bench said after referring to the dispute before the single judge only as to whether petitioner S. Chithra, a domestic worker from Chennai, was earning less than ₹6,000 per month or not.
“In the absence of any law in the land that the benefit of spousal relief should be extended to those earning minimum wages or below, the extension of that benefit to a larger class is only in the realm of executive function and could not be ordered in exercise of judicial power under Article 226 (writ jurisdiction of High Courts) of the Constitution,” the Bench wrote.
The presiding judge, in writing the verdict, stated: “In this case, the only basis for the learned single judge to find that the policy was wrong is a comparison with minimum wages. We do not think that was the correct approach to take. In no event has the policy been challenged in court. Therefore, on the other hand, too… the direction of the learned single judge cannot be sustained in law.”
Further, noting that the state practice of donating gold for the marriage of young women has been discontinued from 2 August 2022 and has now been restructured as the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Higher Education Scheme, the judges said the petitioner’s 2021 application seeking gold for her daughter’s marriage could be considered if her income was less than ₹600 per month.
The orders were passed after the AG said that a single judge’s direction to extend the scheme to all those earning up to ₹12,000 per month could lead to a flood of writ petitions seeking the benefit with retrospective effect and the state would not be able to bear the financial burden, especially given the skyrocketing prices at which gold is being sold at present.
Published – 02 March 2026 22:24 IST
