Uttarakhand HC notice to Maharashtra Governor on contempt plea

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has till date not paid the market rent to for a government bungalow allocated to him as a former CM, the petition said

October 20, 2020 05:37 pm | Updated 05:40 pm IST - Dehradun

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. File

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. File

The Uttarakhand High Court on October 20 sought Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s stand on a plea for starting a contempt proceeding against him for his failure to follow a court order to pay market rent for a government bungalow allocated to him as a former Chief Minister.

Justice Sharad Kumar issued notice to Mr. Koshyari through his counsel after hearing arguments of the petitioner’s counsel on maintainability of the contempt plea.

The plea filed by a Dehradun-based NGO, Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra, accuses the former Chief Minister of committing “willful non-compliance” of the court’s May 3, 2019 order which had asked him to pay market rent of the bungalow occupied by him as ex-CM within six months of the direction.

Mr. Koshyari has till date not paid the market rent to the government as calculated against him, the petition said.

The respondent has also not paid the amount due upon him towards amenities such as electricity, water, petrol, oil etc., it said.

“We have fulfilled the requirement provided under Article 361(4) of the Constitution of India and already given 60 days’ notice to Koshyari before filing the contempt petition,” petitioner’s counsel Kartikeya Hari Gupta said.

The petition also accuses the State government of favouring the respondent unlawfully and arbitrarily by passing the Uttarakhand Former Chief Minister Facilities (Residential and other Facilities) Ordinance 2019, and later enacting a law with the same name to ease him out of his payment obligations.

The law was found to violate the separation of powers doctrine and Article 14 of the Constitution, the petition said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.