The High Court of Uttarakhand in Nainital has directed the State Government to calculate market rent for the use and occupation of the government bungalows by the ex Chief Ministers and file it before the Court within two weeks time. This direction was issued on Thursday by the division bench of justice Rajeev Sharma and justice Sudhanshu Dhulia which heard the petition of Rural litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RlEK) --through its chairman Avdhash Kaushal-- which was filed in 2010 against the alleged “illegal occupation of government houses by the former chief ministers of Uttarakhand”.
According to a statement released by the petitioner—RlEK, “Obeying the earlier High Court order, all the former chief ministers except ND Tiwari had vacated the allotted government house and handed over the possession of the bungalows to the state government. Though in December 2016, ND Tiwari had said in the affidavit that he will vacate the house before February 15, 2017 but he moved an application on February 14, 2017 for the extension time upto March 31, 2017 on the grounds that it being a winter season and due to old age, he should be given more time to vacate the government premises. However, today during the hearing ND Tiwari withdrew his application and told the court that he is vacating the government accommodation today. Ex-chief ministers prayed to the court that now the Public Interest litigation (PIl) should be closed, advocates Kartikey Hari Gupta counsel for RlEK objected that till date state government has not filed the calculation of rent and other occupation charges in court for which the court has time and again directed. However, the state government has asked to pay Rs 1000 per month as the rent for the palatial bungalows allotted to the former chief ministers.
Today High Court directed the state government to calculate market rent for the uses and occupation of the government bungalows by the ex Chief Ministers and file it before the Court within two weeks time and listed the matter there after,” states the RlEK release.