PIL seeking eviction of Ex-Ministers/ Ex-Legislators
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: In a significant order of wide public importance, a Division Bench of High Court of J&K and Ladakh at Jammu comprising Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice MA Chowdhary in the much publicized PIL No. 17/2020 seeking eviction of overstaying Ex-Ministers/ Ex-Legislators has directed Director Estates Jammu/ Srinagar to deal with each and every person (43 occupants) and pass specific individual orders either for cancellation of accommodation and eviction therefrom, or allotment thereof by giving specific reasons for doing so.
The Division Bench further directed, “We make it clear that if the accommodation of any individual mentioned in this report is continued, specific reasons supported by necessary materials, must be provided before this Court so that this Court will examine as to whether the authorities have taken an appropriate and fair decision as regards the Govt. accommodation being presently provided to these 43 persons.”
After hearing Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Rahul Raina, Supriya Chouhan, M. Zulkarnain Choudhary and Syed Majid Shah appearing for the petitioner whereas Sr. AAG SS Nanda appearing for UT of J&K, the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh further directed that the Director Estates, Jammu and Director Estates Srinagar both shall also hear all these 43 persons individually before any such order is passed. In other words, both the Directors will pass specific individual orders in respect of each and every 43 persons aforementioned after hearing them and such separate individual orders shall be placed on record by the next date of hearing.
The Division Bench further directed both the Directors of Estates Department that they will also inform the Court, how much rentals these 43 persons had been paying with supporting documents/ receipts since the time they ceased to hold the offices on the basis of which they were allotted these official accommodations and why they have not been charged rental at commercial rates since they are not holding any office as of now.
The Division Bench further observed and directed that it goes without saying that while passing such separate orders in respect of the aforesaid occupants, the authorities shall keep in mind the provisions of the J&K Estates Department (Allotment of Government Accommodation) Regulations, 2004 and also various orders passed by this Court including the order passed by this Court in CM No. 7467/2022 and CM No. 7468/2022 in WP(C) PIL No. 17/2020.
When this much publicized PIL came up for hearing, Advocate SS Ahmed drew the attention of the Division Bench towards the latest status report dated February 23, 2024 and apprised the Division Bench that almost all the overstaying ex-legislators have their own residential houses at Jammu / Srinagar cities but the Estates Department is not evicting the said occupants because of political clout being enjoyed by them being close to the seat of power.
Advocate SS Ahmed specifically highlighted the cases of former CM Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Deputy CM Kavinder Gupta, Ex-Minister Sajjad Lone, and vociferously argued that dual standards have been adopted by the Estates Department on political considerations and law of the land has been thrown to winds and evictions were earlier carried out selectively.
After heated arguments from both the sides, the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh while parting with the order further directed the Estates Department to complete the aforementioned exercise within a period of one month from today and the authority shall also furnish details by way of filing an affidavit before this Court on or before May 8, 2024 along with the relevant documents with regard to the action taken viz-a-viz individuals mentioned in the report.