The Hindu : New Delhi News : Take immediate steps to recover rent arrears, says Supreme Court

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Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008
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Take immediate steps to recover rent arrears, says Supreme Court

J. Venkatesan

Asks the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary to file a status report in four weeks

Rental arrears of over Rs. 1 crore have to be realised from 27 civil servants
They are unauthorised occupants of government accommodation in State

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to take immediate steps to recover rental arrears of over Rs. 1 crore from 27 civil servants who are the unauthorised occupants of government accommodation in the State.

A Bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice G.S. Singhvi gave the direction after counsel for the State S. Thananjayan informed the court that of the 38 unauthorised occupants, 37 had vacated. Arrears of rental/penal rental had to be realised from 27 persons and one person was yet to vacate due to a pending litigation in the court of Principal District Judge, Chennai.

The Bench, taking on record the affidavit filed by the State, asked the Chief Secretary to file a status report in four weeks on the steps taken for the recovery of the rental/penal rental arrears.

Initially, the apex court was dealing with unauthorised occupation of government bungalows in the capital and later it extended the scope of enquiry to various States, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

The Bench, in its interim order, said, “So far as the recovery of arrears of rental/penal rental is concerned, the State has furnished a list of 38 unauthorised occupants, out of whom 11 have fully cleared the dues. From 27 persons, an amount of Rs. 1,01,11,681 has to be realised on account of arrears of rental/penal rental. It is surprising that many of the officers against whom there are dues on this account are still continuing as members of the Indian Administrative Service holding responsible posts.”

The order said, “We do not know whether all of them are still in service or some of them have retired. Be that as it may, let the Chief Secretary file an affidavit within four weeks as to how these officers holding such high offices remained in unauthorised occupation for years together and why the arrears of rental/penal rental have not been recovered from them. The affidavit should state as to why this court should not consider directing the government to consider the desirability of taking disciplinary action against such officers.”

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