HC asks govt to trace files of CM's housing quota by July 31

The Bombay High Court today set July 31 as the deadline for Maharashtra government to trace 'missing' files pertaining to allotment of flats from the Chief Minister's discretionary housing quota since 1982.
If the files were still not found, the one-man inquiry committee can draw its own conclusion as to whether the allotments should be held illegal, said the division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Reveti Mohite-Dhere.
The HC was hearing a public interest litigation filed by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar, which alleges that non-eligible people got flats from the quota and some people got more than one flat.

The government had earlier said that some of the files pertaining to allotments could not be found.
In October 2014, the HC had appointed a one-man committee of retired judge J A Patil to probe the alleged irregularities in the allotment of flats from 1982 onwards.
The bench today directed the state government to extend the term of the committee to October 15, 2015, because of the delay in handing over of the files.

The committee was free to draw it own conclusion if important documents were not produced by the government, it said.
The court also asked the government to file FIRs or appropriate proceedings against concerned persons if it detected cases of double or multiple allotment, without waiting for the committee's report.

The next hearing would be on October 26.
On the last occasion, the government had stated that around 1,200 allottees had surrendered the flats and about 300 FIRs had been filed.
However, today the acting Advocate General Anil Singh said this figure was incorrect because vacant flats were counted in. Only seven allottees had surrendered the houses allotted to them and 15 FIRs had been filed, he said.