A former Congress councillor from Gwalior, Sudha Dubey, filed a petition with the Madhya Pradesh High Court on September 16, seeking the closure of the Ladli Behna Scheme. The petition was heard by a Division Bench of Justices G.S. Ahluwalia and Anuradha Shukla, who issued notices to the State’s Women and Child Development Department and Finance Department and asked for their responses.
The Ladli Behna Yojana, launched by former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in March 2023, provides eligible women with a monthly allowance that has risen from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 as of November 2025. The scheme benefited about 1.31 crore women in 2023 and was credited by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for helping it win a majority in the Assembly elections. The FY2026‑27 budget allocation for the scheme stands at ₹23,882 crore.
Dubey’s petition argues that the scheme costs more than ₹22,000 crore per year and that there is no evidence that the recurring cash assistance creates lasting economic empowerment or employment for women. It requests the state to disclose its borrowing, debt and interest liabilities and the projected fiscal impact of continuing the scheme, and seeks a stay on disbursements until the matter is resolved.
Dubey described the scheme as an “election freebie” rather than a welfare program, noting that ₹1,500 is insufficient for a household and that no study shows it leads to long‑term financial independence. Her lawyer, Anil Kumar Mishra, added that the issue concerns the prudent use of public money and questioned whether the treasury should fund direct cash transfers or broader development projects. The government has been given four weeks to file its response.
