No public servant should continue in govt house for long after retirement: Delhi HC tells Centre

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Centre to ensure no pubic servant continues to occupy for long the residential accommodation allotted to him/her after their retirement from service.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan also told the Housing Ministry that it expects the government to vacate illegally occupied accommodations and also recover from such persons the dues for the period of illegal occupation.

The high court noted the submission of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that till date it has vacated all 565 government accommodations which were illegally occupied by retired public servants and has recovered over Rs three crore from the illegal occupants.

It also told the bench that over Rs 9 crore was yet to be recovered from the other illegal occupants and steps, like issuing show cause notices, have been initiated.

In view of the steps being taken by the government, the bench said it was not going to continue monitoring the two pleas and disposed them of.

The high court disposed of two PILs which were moved against the continued occupation of government housing by public servants even after their retirement.

One of the petitions, by Chennai Financial Markets and Accountability, had also sought that government accommodation be not allotted to public servants who have their own personal residence at the place of duty.