A three-man bench of the Supreme Court in a historic verdict Thursday called illegal an annual one million rupee government fund set aside for every member of parliament to execute development projects in their constituencies.

The bench headed by Justice Keshab Upadhaya of the apex court asked the government to immediately stop such disbursements. The other two members were Kedar Nath Upadhyaya and Krishna Raj Verma.

The Court ruled the disbursements illegal in the absence of supporting law. Bharat Jangam of Independent Opinion Forum (Swatantra Bichar Manch) had filed the writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking legal order to stop the fund and its spending.

The government has been releasing one million rupees every year to each of 205 parliamentary constituencies to be spent at the discretion of member of parliament of the same constituency.

After the court verdict, petitioner Bharat Jangam said that it was a historic victory in favor of the people and the nation.