A court here on Tuesday upheld an order by the Estate Officer directing Payal Abdullah, the estranged wife of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, to vacate 7, Akbar Road government accommodation in Lutyens’ Delhi.
The accommodation was allotted to Mr. Abdullah in 1999 when he was an MP.
District and Sessions Judge Amar Nath dismissed her appeal to quash the vacation notice issued on June 30 by the Estate Officer of the J-K government under the J-K Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act.
In her appeal against the vacation order, Ms. Abdullah submitted that her family continued to live in the bungalow when Mr. Omar was neither Chief Minister of the State nor a Minister at the Centre.
She said that the notice issued by the Estate Officer of J-K was illegal as it was issued under a State law, which is not applicable in Delhi.
Ms. Abdullah also said that the vacation notice was not sent by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, which had allotted the accommodation.
Ms. Abdullah has also filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to allow her and her two sons to stay in the bungalow, or allot a suitable government accommodation where the family’s 94 security personnel could effectively protect them.
The matter is still pending there. It is scheduled to come up for hearing on August 19.
Ms. Abdullah, in her petition in the High Court, said she was served with the vacation notice by the Estate Officer in June, and when Mr. Omar was communicated about it, he replied that they were free to take whatever action they deemed fit as he was no longer living there.
