The Hindu : National : Rent arrears: SC fiat to Centre

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Thursday, Jan 18, 2007
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Rent arrears: SC fiat to Centre

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Union Government to take immediate steps for recovery of rental arrears to the tune of over Rs. 50 crores from 497 unauthorised occupants of Government accommodation in the capital.

A Bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice P.P. Naolekar gave the direction after Additional Solicitor-General Amarendra Saran informed the court that out of the 497 unauthorised occupants, 432 had vacated and some of them had been regularised. Disputes relating to the remaining houses were pending in various courts, he said and added that proceedings had been initiated for recovery of over Rs. 50 crores of rental arrears from the occupants of these houses.

The Bench while taking on record the Centre's affidavit asked the ASG to file a status report by May 1 on the steps taken for recovery of the rental arrears and to explain the procedure adopted for regularising the accommodation.

As per the affidavit, the Congress Party was in unauthorised occupation of three bungalows since October 2000 and arrears of rent to the tune of Rs. 1.06 cr was yet to be recovered. The others from whom dues were recoverable included the family of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, Rs. 1,08,133; Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rs. 1,24,019 and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, 18,97,921, though both of them had vacated their houses.

Ranjit Kumar, amicus curae in the case, told the Bench that the Centre's affidavit was vague and instead of recovering the dues, the Government had regularised their occupation or re-allotted the same to others. The Centre failed to explain the steps taken for recovery of the dues, he said.

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