The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to evict all those who were occupying dilapidated Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) tenements on Peters Road in Royapettah, CIT Nagar, Cox Square, Foreshore Estate and Mandaveli here and review the allotment of those who were occupying the flats on false claims.
Justice S.M. Subramaniam ordered that those who had been defaulting on payment of rent should also be evicted by following due process of law. The entire exercise was ordered to be completed within 12 weeks and a direction was issued to TNHB too to ensure that the tenements were maintained well in future without giving scope for complaints.
The directions were issued while disposing of a batch of writ petitions filed by a large group of TNHB allottees challenging a Government Order issued on July 4 last year enhancing the rent for the tenements. The judge refused to interfere with the enhancement and held that there was nothing unreasonable about it.
He said the petitioners could not be allowed to reside in the government buildings on payment of a paltry amount of ₹1,438 per month for a 500 square foot flat, when the market rental rate of a similar flat on Peters Road was about ₹10,000 per month. He said the government was justified in raising the rent to around ₹ 6,000 a month.
Rental arrears
Since it was reported to the court that many people had vacated the tenements without settling huge rental arrears and many more were residing without paying rent for years together, the judge ordered that such dereliction of duty in collection of rent could not be tolerated when the tenements had been built with public money.
He ordered that immediate action be initiated against defaulters failing which the government official concerned should be subjected to disciplinary action. The judge also frowned upon nepotism and favouritism in allotment of TNHB flats and many of them having been allotted to ineligible persons under the public quota.
“Even government employees are in occupation under public quota, which is certainly impermissible. They get the public quota in the name of their relatives or their family members. All such irregularities and illegalities are to be identified and appropriate actions are to be taken for eviction of such illegal occupants,” the judge ordered.
Mr. Justice Subramaniam disapproved of the act of the government in having increased the discretionary quota from 10% to 20% though it should be the other way round. Observing that discretionary quota would pave way for several irregularities, he said the government should actually reduce the quantum of such quota.
