E-Paper
Illegal occupation of govt bungalow: J&K high court slaps ₹25,000 fine on ex-minister Lal Singh
Despite an order of the single bench of the high court on November 15, wherein Lal Singh was asked to vacate the government bungalow at posh Gandhi Nagar locality within six weeks’ time, the former minister had moved a fresh application before the division bench
A division bench of J&K and Ladakh high court on Monday slapped a fine of ₹25,000 on former Jammu and Kashmir minister and founder of Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party Choudhary Lal Singh for seeking order against the administration for evicting him from his government bungalow.
Despite an order of the single bench of the high court on November 15, wherein Lal Singh was asked to vacate the government bungalow at posh Gandhi Nagar locality within six weeks’ time, the former minister had moved a fresh application before the division bench seeking an injunction against the J&K government for evicting him.
The division bench comprising acting chief justice Tashi Rabstan and justice Rajesh Sekhri observed, “Though applicant has admitted that the writ petition filed by him against proceedings initiated against him under the Public Premises Act was dismissed as withdrawn by single bench of this court, he has yet come up with the instant applicant with the sole intention to prolong his unauthorised occupation of the government bungalow, when the period of six weeks granted to him for vacation of the bungalow would expire on December 27. This amounts to an abuse of the process of law.”
“Security assessment and entitlement to government accommodation are two different issues and cannot be intermingled to defeat the process of law. The present application filed by the applicant is nothing, but an abuse of the process of law,” the division bench stated further in its decree, while upholding the single bench’s November 15 order.
“The present application being devoid of merit is dismissed with costs quantified at ₹25,000 to be deposited in the advocates’ welfare fund within a period of two weeks, failing which the registry will maintain the index,” the division bench concluded.
On October 28, the estates department through its deputy director had served an eviction notice on Choudhary Lal Singh, asking him to vacate his official residence in Gandhi Nagar by November 15.
The estates department had issued the eviction notice to the former minister reminding him that he had been illegally occupying the government accommodation in violation of the rules.
The former minister also ran his party office from the government bungalow. He had been twice served eviction notices, but he has not complied with them so far.
Lal Singh was given the government bungalow when he was a minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government.
Jammu and Kashmir has no elected government since June 19, 2018, when the PDP-BJP government witnessed an unceremonious fall after the latter pulled out of the combine citing worsening security scenario in the region.
A ‘Z’ category protectee, Lal Singh had called it a political vendetta by the BJP and claimed that the BJP government was not comfortable with him after he formed his own party.
