HC asks ex-govt employee to pay Rs 16 L for illegal stay in

The Delhi High Court today upheld the Lok Sabha Secretariat Estate Officer's order imposing more than Rs 16 lakhs as damages from a government employee for illegally occupying an official bungalow for about seven years after his superannuation.
Dismissing the appeal of G R Gupta against the district judge's 2011 order, Justice V K Jain upheld the lower court's order rejecting his plea against the Estate Officer's decision imposing damages on him for his stay in a bungalow on Talkatora Road for the period after his retirement till the date he had vacated the house (September 1, 1994 to September 27, 2001).

"The computation sheet prepared by Lok Sabha Secretariat, which was applied by the Estate Officer and accepted by the district judge, is based upon the same rates. Therefore, no fault can be found with the aforesaid calculation sheet which shows that a sum of Rs 16,11,823 was payable by the petitioner towards damages after deducting the amount which he had already paid," Justice Jain said in his judgement.
According to the petitioner, he was on deputation with Lok Sabha Secretariat from February 14, 1979 to July 25, 1982 the date on which he was repatriated from there but he had continued to occupy the house.

The petitioner retired from government service on December 31, 1993 and he was appointed as a Member of Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Delhi on May 15, 1996, where he continued to work till December 11, 2000. During this period also, he was staying in the same government bungalow.
Through a communication on August 27, 2001, the Lok Sabha Secretariat had informed Gupta that he could have retained the house for two months after the date of his repatriation and his occupation with effect from September 26, 1982 was unauthorised as the allotment was deemed to have been cancelled with effect from that date.