Unauthorised occupation of govt bungalows: HC to J&K govt for status report

A division bench of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh comprising chief justice Tashi Rabstan and justice MA Chowdhary, on Thursday, directed the J&K government to file latest status report with regard to former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and former chief of the J&K BJP Ravinder Raina in a Public Interest Litigation.

The PIL has been seeking eviction of overstaying former ministers, former legislators and politicians from government accommodation.

The Division Bench directed senior additional advocate general (Sr AAG) SS Nanda, who appeared for estates department of J&K, to file the latest status with regard to two politicians namely Ghulam Nabi Azad, former chief minister of the erstwhile state of J&K and Ravinder Raina, former president, J&K BJP by or before the next date of hearing.

Nanda submitted that now only three politicians were left, who are occupying the government accommodation.

“Out of them one politician namely Ravinder Sharma (ex-MLC and chief spokesperson of J&K Congress) has filed an independent writ petition, wherein the court has already stayed his eviction from the government accommodation,” he said.

Nanda further stated that a designated committee of government of J&K is likely to review the matter regarding allotment of accommodations and sought three weeks’ time to file the latest status with regard to Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ravinder Raina.

At this stage advocate SS Ahmed, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that there cannot be two laws in one UT as the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Rajesh Sekhri while rejecting the plea of Choudhary Lal Singh, former MP in the instant PIL, had held that security and accommodation were two distinct factors.

He reminded that DB had based its findings on the basis of the judgement passed by the High Court of Delhi in Subramanyam Swami’s case wherein the Delhi High Court had dismissed the writ petition of former MP Rajya Sabha who was seeking stay against his eviction on completion of his Rajya Sabha term.

Advocate S.S. Ahmed further submitted that the two high profile politicians were continuing in government accommodation on the basis of the recommendations of the designated committee of J&K Government and the rest of the politicians have been evicted.

He further submitted that recommendations of the designated committee cannot overturn the judgement of the Division Bench which held that Security and Accommodation are two distinct factors.

He also submitted that the then government had evicted two former chief ministers and more than 180 politicians from government accommodations and similar principle needs to be adopted in the case of these two politicians.

Accordingly, DB directed the senior AAG to file latest status report with regard to Azad and Raina by or before April 23.