JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday quashed Section 7BB of the Rajasthan Ministers' Salaries (Amendment) Act, 2017, which provided lifelong free housing and other facilities — including government staff — at par with cabinet ministers to former chief ministers.
The move followed a PIL by Milap Chand Dandia, a retired journalist, challenging the provisions of the Act which was drafted and enforced by the previous Vasundhara Raje government.
At present, two former CMs — Vasundhara Raje and Jagannath Pahadia — are availing the free housing facility. The court observed that extending these facilities to former chief ministers, regardless of whether they had a tenure of five years or less, is abhorrent to the principle of equality.Drawing a parallel with George Orwell’s book ‘Animal Farm’, Chief Justice Prakash Gupta observed, “All animals are born equal but some are more equal (privileged) than others. Former CMs enjoying the status of a ruling elite by assuring them significant largesse for life amounts to saying that such individuals are more equal than other public servants and citizens of India.”
The judgment compared the existing perks and facilities being availed by the former presidents of the US, New Zealand and the prime minister of the UK. The former US presidents do not get perks such as rent-free accommodation, free electricity and free phones. The amount they receive per annum is USD 96,000 which is also taxable. “Similarly in New Zealand, a former prime minister is paid at the yearly rate of $10,700 while the maximum pension paid to a former PM of the UK, inclusive of the cost of security, amounts to 250,000 pounds,” reads the order.
The HC reasoned that to permit the allotment of such residential accommodation to former CMs would mean that the court has to accept the state’s theory that a reasonable classification exists between those elected as CM and those who are not. It held section 7BB of the Rajasthan Ministers' Salaries (Amendment) Act as “arbitrary and unconstitutional”.
The move followed a PIL by Milap Chand Dandia, a retired journalist, challenging the provisions of the Act which was drafted and enforced by the previous Vasundhara Raje government.
At present, two former CMs — Vasundhara Raje and Jagannath Pahadia — are availing the free housing facility. The court observed that extending these facilities to former chief ministers, regardless of whether they had a tenure of five years or less, is abhorrent to the principle of equality.Drawing a parallel with George Orwell’s book ‘Animal Farm’, Chief Justice Prakash Gupta observed, “All animals are born equal but some are more equal (privileged) than others. Former CMs enjoying the status of a ruling elite by assuring them significant largesse for life amounts to saying that such individuals are more equal than other public servants and citizens of India.”
The judgment compared the existing perks and facilities being availed by the former presidents of the US, New Zealand and the prime minister of the UK. The former US presidents do not get perks such as rent-free accommodation, free electricity and free phones. The amount they receive per annum is USD 96,000 which is also taxable. “Similarly in New Zealand, a former prime minister is paid at the yearly rate of $10,700 while the maximum pension paid to a former PM of the UK, inclusive of the cost of security, amounts to 250,000 pounds,” reads the order.
The HC reasoned that to permit the allotment of such residential accommodation to former CMs would mean that the court has to accept the state’s theory that a reasonable classification exists between those elected as CM and those who are not. It held section 7BB of the Rajasthan Ministers' Salaries (Amendment) Act as “arbitrary and unconstitutional”.
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