Himachal Pradesh High Court talks tough on house allotment, raps Additional Chief Secretary

Legal Correspondent

Shimla, July 28

The High Court today directed the Secretary (GAD) and the Director of the Directorate of Estates to ensure that there was a fair and transparent procedure adopted by them in matters of allotment of government accommodation strictly in accordance with the HP Allotment of Government Residential (General Pool) Rules, 1994.

A division bench comprising Justice Tarlok Singh and Justice Sandeep Sharma further directed that the details of application as per “first come, first served basis” and other details shall, along with the order(s) of allotment made from time to time, be uploaded on the official website within 24 hours of the order(s) of allotment.

The court passed these directions on a petition filed by a driver of the High Court, contending that he was allotted accommodation in 2021. Since the accommodation (as per the petitioner) did not suit him as it was away from the road and there were stairs making it difficult for his aged and ailing parents to live with him in the accommodation.

Accordingly, he applied for a change in accommodation through proper channel on March 22, 2021.

Whereas, the Director Estate on August, 23, 2021, issued a letter conveying the approval for change of accommodation in favour of driver of Secretariat Chaman Lal on the recommendation of the then Additional Chief Secretary (Forest & Aurveda) and rejected the application of the petitioner. It was contended that the petitioner had applied for change of accommodation on March 23, 2021, much prior to the application of Chaman Lal.

While rapping the Additional Chief Secretary, the court observed, “The issuance of DO note (recommendatory letter) at the instance of the Additional Chief Secretary is clearly in violation of the rules.” Aggrieved by the action of the official respondents in allotting the accommodation in question to respondent Chaman Lal, the petitioner approached the High Court for quashing and setting aside the allotment.

The court further observed, “It is highly regrettable that the high-ranking officer has been completely oblivious to the fact that the office entrusted to him/her is sacred trust and is meant for use and not for abuse. The holders of the office cannot act as despots or monarchs and are obliged to act in accordance with the principles of democracy, equity, equality and solidarity and above all, in accordance with the rules governing the field. It is because of sharp and illegal practices being followed by such officer that the petitioner has been deprived of accommodation to which, he was legitimately entitled to.”

Coming down heavily on the state officials, the court observed, “Unfortunately, this is not a solitary case where the official-respondents have been found to be openly and shamelessly violating the rules. There have been many occasions where the court has been constrained to even suspend the powers of the government in the matter of allotment of accommodation only because there were large scale of bungling and irregularities in the same and it is nothing short of a “scam”.

The court directed the Secretary (GAD) and Director, Estates, to hand over the accommodation to the petitioner latest by August 16, 2022.