Friday, January 13 2006 19:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In an interesting development, the Supreme Court today (Jan 13,2006) decided to examine whether ex-Chief Ministers could be provided with Government accommodation on the lines of former Presidents and Prime Ministers and issued notices to the Center and all states on the same.

Accepting that questions raised in the petition were important and required deeper consideration, a Benchcomprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice R V Raveendran issued notices to the Centre and all States on a PIL alleging that large-scale violation of rules has been taking place relating to allocation of Government bungalows to ex-Chief Ministers.

The issue emerged from a PIL filed by an NGO 'Lok Prahari' alleging that despite an Allahabad High Court direction, the Uttar Pradesh Government has framed the Ex-Chief Ministers Residence Allotment Rules 1997 (Non Statutory) for alloting bungalows to successive ex-Chief Ministers.

During the hearing, the NGO said the beneficiaries of the rule were former Chief Ministers of all parties. The ex-Chief Ministers whose name figured during the hearing were N D Tiwari, Ram Naresh Yadav, Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh, Mayawati and V P Singh.

The NGO has contended that the Rules framed in 1997 for allotment of government bungalows to ex-Chief Ministers were unconstitutional and illegal and those occupying them were allegedly unauthorised occupants within the meaning of the UP Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act.

Further, the retention of Government accommodation by Chief Ministers after demitting office was against the rovisions of UP Ministers (Salaries/allowances and other facilities) Act.