HC dismisses Tejashwi's plea challenging order to vacate govt bungalow

The Patna High Court Saturday dismissed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav's petition challenging the Bihar government's order to vacate the official bungalow allotted to him when he was the deputy chief minister.

The bench of Justice Jyoti Saran dismissed Yadav's petition challenging the Building Construction Department's order, asking him to vacate the 5, Deshratna Marg bungalow, which was allotted to him when he was the deputy chief minister.

Agreeing with the contention of the state government, the bench said the government quarter was earmarked for the deputy chief minister and hence, the petitioner had no right to ask for the allotment of the same quarter.

The government quarter on 1, Polo Road, which was allotted to the petitioner was in accordance with the status of his leader of opposition post, the court said.

Through his counsel Abhinav Srivastava, Yadav had sought quashing of the letter issued on September 20, 2017 by the Estate Officer of the Bihar Building Construction Department, Patna, asking him to vacate the government quarter.

On May 18 this year, the court had directed the authorities concerned to maintain status quo with regard to the government quarter in question until the matter was heard on merits.

Appearing for the state government, Advocate General Lalit Kishore told the court that the 5, Deshratna Marg bungalow was earmarked for the deputy chief minister while the one on 1, Polo Road was earmarked for the leader of opposition of the state Assembly.

He said Yadav was allotted the bungalow on 5, Deshratna Marg as the deputy chief minister, while Sushil Kumar Modi was allotted the one on 1, Polo Road as the then leader of opposition. But now that the situation had reversed, Yadav had no right to keep the 5, Deshratna Marg bungalow in his possession, Kishore told the court.

Yadav, the younger son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, became the Bihar deputy chief minister in November, 2015 after the Grand Alliance comprising his party, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) and the Congress won a huge majority in the Assembly polls.

However, he lost the chair in July last year when Kumar walked out of the coalition and formed a new government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).