The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to explain the grant of security personnel to unauthorised persons in the State and "recover" the amount that was spent on them.
A Division Bench of Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza and Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya passed the order on a PIL by Lucknow based social activist Nutan Thakur.
In its counter-affidavit, the Uttar Pradesh DSP (security wing), Ajay Kumar Singh pointed out that presently 830 persons beyond the authorised list were awarded security by the State. Of this, 170 were awarded security free of cost, while 650 were awarded security on payment. The total expenditure on the persons beyond the authorized list was Rs. 4.83 crore, of which Rs. 3 crore has been recovered. A balance amout of Rs 1.83 crore is yet to be recovered, the affidavit said.
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The Court asked the State why the rest of the amount had not been recovered and directed the Principal Secretary (Home) to file the reply and ordered that the pending amount be recovered within 15 days.
The Court also said that in all those cases where security was provided without the recommendation of the district security committee, the State government shall present the copy of the Court order, if any, on which the security was provided and in all other cases, the security must be withdrawn immediately.
The affidavit also gave named many persons who have been granted security even without any recommendation of the respective district security committees.
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Dr. Thakur said the list included former MLAs, lawyers, eyewitnesses and district heads of political parties. The Court has directed her to file the rejoinder. The next hearing is due on December 2.