J&K BJP President Ravinder Raina and former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta are among several political persons who have been named as illegal occupants of government accommodation in the list submitted in the High Court by the administration.
The list updated till 2 September 2020 includes names of several former ministers and legislators of the BJP and other political parties who were illegally occupying the government houses that were allotted to them in their official capacity.
Professor SK Bhalla had filed public interest litigation in the matter of politicians and former bureaucrats illegally occupying government accommodation that was contrary to their entitlement.
Although the government has scrapped the rules that provided for government accommodation to former chief ministers, the list submitted by the estates department mentions that the family of former chief minister GM Shah was occupying a bungalow in the posh Gandhi Nagar locality of Jammu.
A division bench of the J&K High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajesh Bindal on Saturday directed the Union Territory (UT) administration to provide complete details of unauthorised occupants of government accommodation, including former ministers, former legislators, exbureaucrats and others. The court also ordered the government to submit details of arrears of rent, electricity and renovation carried out in such illegally occupied houses.
The court listed the matter on 22 December.
The division bench termed the issue as intolerable and reprimanded the Estates department for allowing unauthorised occupation of government accommodation. The court also observed that any stay order issued by any court against the Supreme Court judgments on such matters will be against law.
Senior lawyer Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed appeared in the PIL on behalf of Prof. Bhalla, whereas BA Dar and Aseem Sawhney Additional Advocate Generals appeared on behalf of the UT Administration.
The status report filed earlier stated that the matter for forceful eviction of illegal occupants was taken up with the Home Department and was enquired whether these occupants require the accommodation for security reasons. Once comments of the Home Department are received then appropriate action in the matter will be taken.