363 govt accomodations vacated: Centre to SC

The Supreme Court today took note of Centre's response that it has got back the possession of 363 government accommodations, including Type 6, 7 and 8 bungalows and decided to dispose of the plea on the issue.
"This is not an alarming situation. There are one or two stray instances. For one or two houses, we shall not be wasting our time," a bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice A K Sikri said.
The court had earlier taken suo motu cognizance of a letter written by former CAG Vinod Rai who had annexed a news report of a national daily alleging that 22 former Union ministers and retired bureaucrats were illegally occupying government accommodation.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, today said that out of 374 houses, 363 have been vacated after the present government took over.
He also said that in one matter, the eviction process has already been initiated and in the cases of deceased leaders Sis Ram Ola and Arjun Singh, their families have been allowed to stay for some more time on compassionate grounds.
The court took note of the reply and disposed of the plea saying that these are "stray" incidents.

Earlier, the court had directed the Centre to furnish the names of persons occupying top three categories of government accommodation in Delhi, including those who are staying unauthorisedly, before the winter session of Parliament.

The Centre, in its affidavit, had submitted that many of former Ministers and MPs who were reportedly living unauthorisedly have vacated their premises.
It had said that former ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal, A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, S M Krishna, Mukul Wasnik, C P Joshi and Mukul Roy have vacated the premises recently.
The Centre in its affidavit said that the total number of type 6 and 7 quarters in general pool is 126 and 187 respectively, which is 0.5 per cent in comparison to total number of quarters in Delhi which is around 61,466.
The apex court had on July 18 issued notice to Centre on illegal occupation of government accommodation which was brought to its notice by Rai.