Can retain quarters for 3 years after each posting to non-family station: HC

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that a Central government employee transferred from one non-family station to another remains entitled to retain government accommodation at concessional rent for up to three years from each such transfer.

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The ruling came in a case where the Centre claimed that the three-year period was to be counted from the date of the first transfer, as per office memorandum dated April 10, 2018, issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, which extended the concessional retention of government accommodation till June 30, 2021.

The Bench of Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and Justice Deepak Manchanda asserted there was nothing in the Central Government General Pool Residential Accommodation Rules, 2017, or subsequent office memorandums, to limit “transfer” to the first posting alone.

“A perusal of the rules/instructions does not indicate that the term transfer is limited to the first transfer and will not be applicable to any other transfer to a non-family station. We are, therefore, unable to agree with the argument canvassed by counsel for the Union of India and other petitioners,” the Bench ruled.

The court added that the purpose of permitting an employee to retain the accommodation on his transfer to a non-family station was to ensure the welfare and stability of the employee’s family. “Non-family stations often face adverse climatic conditions, security concerns, or lack basic educational and medical facilities,” the Bench observed, while making it clear that the instructions were required to be interpreted in a beneficial manner to advance the object of the rules.

The ruling came as the Bench dismissing the Union Government’s petition challenging the CAT’s order quashing the imposition of penal rent on the respondent working as Joint Director (Contracts) in the office of the Chief Engineer, Chandigarh Zone, Military Engineering Services, Ministry of Defence. He was first transferred to Leh in 2015 and again posted to Udhampur in 2018 – both non-family stations. The Bench was told that the employee retained his accommodation till December 2020.

Referring to the office memorandums dated April 10, 2018, and June 15, 2018, the Bench held that officers transferred after June 19, 2017, could retain accommodation for three years from the date of transfer or till June 30, 2021, whichever was earlier. The orders applied to transfers from one non-family station to another.

The Bench rejected the Centre’s contention that the employee should have vacated the accommodation in 2018, after asserting that the government could not be allowed to take contradictory stands when it had extended the retention periods through policy clarifications.

“On one hand, petitioner-Union of India insists that the respondent had to vacate the premises by June, 2020. On the other, it submits that he could retain the accommodation for a maximum period of three years from the date of transfer. The petitioner cannot be allowed to blow hot and cold at the same time,” the Bench asserted.

Even otherwise, the court noted that the 2017 Rules empowered the Central government to relax any provisions in deserving cases. Holding that the employee was not in unauthorised occupation, the High Court directed refund of penal rent collected from July 16, 2020, to December 2, 2020, with interest at 6 per cent per annum.