The Government has regularised a prime official plot in the Capital, held in unauthorised occupation by former Union Home Minister and Bihar Governor Buta Singh since 2010, “in defiance of Supreme Court’s order”.
The Centre made the move even as the Court is examining the matter of unauthorised occupation of Government’s residential quarters and had requested the Centre not to carry out any fresh allotment. Not surprisingly, the Government’s decision invited the Supreme Court’s ire on Friday.
“It is in clear defiance of this court’s order,” said the bench of Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) AS Chandhioke, who appeared for the Centre, justified the move by stating that a freeze was only on fresh allotment and not regularisation.
The court directed ASG to produce the file with the order in question within a week. It observed, “You have made a fresh allotment in the guise of regularisation.”
Singh was in illegal occupation of the Government residence 11-A Teen Murti Marg since June 25, 2010 when he retired as Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes. A month after his retirement, the Director of Estates served him an eviction order.
last year, when the Supreme Court called for a list of unauthorised occupants of Government premises in the Capital, Singh figured prominently for illegally holding on to his Type VII bungalow. On January 4, 2013, the same was regularised.
Interestingly, his name was conspicuously absent from the latest status report presented by the Centre detailing about the 443 illegal occupants. ASG AS Chandhioke lauded the fact that the list of unauthorised occupants had considerably scaled down to 251 with the rest having promptly vacated following the notice issued by the Supreme Court to all illegal occupants.
But going through the list, the bench asked the ASG twice if the list was complete, hinting that certain names were missing. “Some people you have omitted from the list,” the bench remarked, referring to certain names in the earlier list of October 10, 2012 submitted to Court.
When the Court put a specific query about Singh, Chandhioke replied, “It had been regularised on January 4, 2013.” The bench shot back, “You can’t do that, it is all illegal.”
Going through the entire list, the court found out that the Centre was pursuing litigations for evictions since 2001. “By now you should have evicted them,” the bench said. The bench’s concern generated from a lack of accommodation for judicial members occupying posts in Tribunals who have to settle in lodges and dharamsalas, not behoving their status.