HC clears the air on govt accommodation

Saurabh Malik

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 10

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that government accommodation as per entitlement cannot be refused to an employee on the grounds that he is already in occupation of an accommodation, albeit of a type lower.

The Bench also ruled cogent grounds were required to be in existence to revoke out-of-turn allotment once made by the competent authority and the action of revocation must be able to withstand judicial scrutiny.

The ruling by Justice Rajiv Narain Raina came on a petition filed by Rajinder Parsad against the Union Territory of Chandigarh and another respondent. Appearing before the Bench for the UT Administration, counsel Aman Pal, on instructions from a senior assistant in the house allotment committee, submitted that the petitioner was, indeed, posted as OSD to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker.

He was given out-of-turn allotment of a type “X” house in Sector 7 from the Punjab pool of government accommodation available in Chandigarh. However, the allotment was cancelled as there was paucity of the same in Chandigarh. Besides, the petitioner was already in occupation of type “XIII” government accommodation in Sector 22. The accommodation was smaller than the petitioner’s entitlement.

After hearing parties through their counsel, Justice Raina asserted the court believed both these reasons should not have been used arbitrarily against the petitioner. Paucity of government accommodation was not substantiated by data.

“The fact that the petitioner is in occupation of government accommodation of a type lower than his entitlement will also not be a justifiable reason to refuse allotment of accommodation as per his legal entitlement,” Justice Raina said.

“Once out-of-turn allotment is made by the competent authority for any reason whatsoever, there must exist very cogent grounds to revoke the order and the action must stand judicial scrutiny,” Justice Raina added.

Accepting the plea in view of the prevailing facts and circumstances, Justice Raina allowed the petition before quashing the order cancelling out-of-turn allotment to the petitioner. The petitioner would shift to the Sector 7 house and hand over the vacant possession of the Sector 22 house to the agent of the UT house allotment committee as per the time frame fixed by the administration without a delay, Justice Raina concluded.