Furnish Details Of Government Accommodation Occupied Unauthorisedly By Employees: Calcutta High Court To Govt.

The Bench of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Aniruddha Roy gave this direction while noting that the petitioner before the Court was in occupation of government accommodation after the retirement of her late husband for a period of more than 27 years.

While dealing with the case, the Court sternly remarked,

"The case in hand is a glaring example of the fact as to how the government officials can sleep over the matter pertaining to eviction of the ex-government employees or their families from the government accommodation allotted to them during service."

The Petitioner took the stand that no proceedings were ever initiated against her for eviction from the government accommodation allotted to her husband during his service tenure.

It was further contended that there are a number of other government houses in the occupation of the employees who had retired from service.

To this, the Court directed the Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal,

"To ensure filing of affidavits by the concerned Secretaries of different departments giving details of all the government accommodations under their control, which are in occupation of the employees who are not entitled to that, namely after retirement, death, or transfer of the employee concerned."

Further, the Court also directed that it should be apprised of the rules/regulations or the instructions issued with reference to the period up to which such government accommodation can be retained by the employee or his family and charges/penalty to be paid by an employee or his family in occupation of the government accommodation for use and occupation thereon and the law under which the proceedings of eviction are to be initiated.

In case of failure, Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal has been directed to remain present in person before the Court on the next date of hearing. With this, the matter was posted for further hearing on 30^th March.

Related news

In related news, the Jammu & Kashmir High Court on Thursday (18^th February) underlined that natural resources, public lands and the public goods, like Government bungalows/official residence, are public property that belong to the people of the country.

The Bench of Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul directed the Jammu & Kashmir government to take all steps for eviction of unauthorized/ illegal occupants (including former Ministers, Legislators, Retired Officers, and Politicians) from Government accommodation and recovery of rent thereof, earlier in point of time.

Significantly, the Bench also remarked,

"It is unfortunate that some former Ministers/ Legislators/ Retired Officers/ Politicians/ Political persons, etc., have illegally/ unauthorizedly managed to continue to stay in the residential accommodation provided to them by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, though they are no longer entitled to such accommodation"

Earlier, in December 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had reprimanded the Government authorities of the Union Territory for allotting government accommodations to former Chief Minister, MLAs, MPs, bureaucrats and private persons, in contravention of its previous directions.

A Division Bench of the J&K HC had in 2019 in Thakur Randhir Singh v. State of J&K & Ors., held that an allottee of a Government accommodation, may it be a Government Servant, Minister or a Legislator, is required to vacate the accommodation allotted to after he ceases to hold the official status/position.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Sanjay Dhar recounted that the Supreme Court has also categorically held in Lok Prahari v. State of Uttar Pradesh, that Government houses cannot be allotted to these persons.

It may be noted that the Uttarakhand High Court, on 9^th June 2020, declared that the Uttarakhand Former Chief Ministers Facility Act, 2019 which allows former chief ministers of the State to stay in government bungalows without paying market rent, is "ultra vires". The division bench comprised by Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice RC Khulbe had held that a Chief Minister, once he demits office, is on par with the common man and is not entitled to any preferential treatment, other than security and other protocols.

Case title - Chandrawati Devi Vs. The State of West Bengal and Ors [WPST 4 of 2021]

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