New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the contempt proceedings initiated against Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal for alleged non-compliance of the Uttarakhand high court’s last year order on payment of rent by the former chief minister of the state for occupying government accommodation.
A bench headed by Justice R.F. Nariman stayed the contempt proceedings on a plea filed by the Union education minister.
The Uttarakhand high court had on May 3 last year ordered the former chief ministers of the state to pay market rent for the entire period they continued to occupy government accommodation since leaving office.
The high court had declared all government orders from 2001 providing housing and other facilities to former chief ministers in the state as illegal and unconstitutional.
The court had also directed that all amount due and payable towards amenities such as electricity, water, petrol, oil and lubricants provided by the state to former chief ministers shall be computed by the state government within four months from the date of receipt of the copy of the order.
It had also said that the amount shall be intimated to the former chief ministers, who shall within six months from the date of such intimation, pay the said amount to the state government.
Also read: No Money for Employees, But Uttarakhand Willing to Forego Rs 2.8 Cr From Former CMs
The high court had passed the order on a plea by a Dehradun-based NGO. The NGO had filed a plea in the high court alleging non-compliance of the order.
The Uttarakhand high court, on October 15, issued a showcause notice to a top official in a civil contempt petition to “ascertain as to how he lowered the amount to be recovered from” Pokhriyal, according to LiveLaw.
A division bench in the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) v. State of Uttarakhand & Others writ petition had directed Pokhriyal to deposit the entire penal rent and other amounts due (which came to a total of Rs 41,64,389) for the amenities he availed himself of as chief minister of the state in six months.
The amount of Rs 41,64,389 was arrived at by the division bench by considering an affidavit filed by the additional secretary and estates officer of Uttarakhand in February 2019. The affidavit detailed the various liabilities undertaken on behalf of each former chief minister.
However, by October 2019, Deependra Kumar Chaudhary, the new additional secretary determined that the amount payable by Pokhriyal was Rs. 10,77,709, instead of Rs 41,64,389. This, the high court found, was contrary to the initial affidavit considered by the court.
As LiveLaw notes, in June 2020, the Uttarakhand high court declared that the ‘Uttarakhand Former Chief Ministers Facility Act, 2019’ which allowed former chief ministers of the state to stay in government bungalows without paying market rent was “ultra vires”.
(With PTI inputs)