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Rajasthan HC scraps law allowing house, car to ex-CMs for life
The bench said the sections amounted to arrogating former chief ministers to the status of “a ruling elite” by assuring them significant largesse for life.
The Rajasthan high court on Wednesday quashed provisions of a 2017 law under which former chief ministers were provided rent-free government accommodation, a car, a telephone, and a 10-member staff, including a driver, for the remainder of their lives.
A division bench of chief justice S Ravindra Bhat and justice Prakash Gupta called sections 7BB and 11 of the Rajasthan Ministers Salaries Act, 2017, “arbitrary” and “void”. Journalist Milap Chand Dandia had filed public interest litigation challenging the constitutional validity of the provisions.
The bench said the sections amounted to arrogating former chief ministers to the status of “a ruling elite” by assuring them significant largesse for life. “The two sections are arbitrary, contrary to Article 14 [equality before the law] of the Constitution of India, and void,” it added.
Dandia’s lawyer, Vimal Chand Choudhary, cited Article 14 and added assuring rent-free accommodation and other perks in the form of “freebies” amounted be the distribution of largesse. He said it was not based on any rationale. “By no stretch of logic or reason can a former chief minister be classified as different from any other public servant. Granting such benefits would fly in the face of settled jurisprudence that state largesse cannot be given out for no reason,” he argued.
In his petition, Dandia said the perks put an extra burden of about ₹1.5 crore per annum on the state exchequer. It cited norms and said they provide only for payment of salaries and allowances to the members of legislature and ministers. There is no specific provision for residences and conveyance allowances for them, it added.
He argued that it is not within the domain of the state legislature to make provisions for residential accommodation, staff, cars, and telephones for former chief ministers.
Rajasthan advocate general, MS Singhvi, argued it is within the competence of the state legislature to make provisions for residential accommodation and other allowances for former chief ministers. “None of the provisions of the Act violate Article 14 of the Constitution, as there is an intelligible differentia to justify separate and exclusive treatment for former chief ministers who form a class of their own,” he said.
The Supreme Court last year quashed a similar law in Uttar Pradesh saying a chief minister’s retention of official accommodation after demitting office violates the equality clause that Constitution’s Article 14 guarantees.
