1. Heard counsel for the parties.
This public interest litigation has been filed to question the inaction of the Authorities in initiating eviction proceedings in respect of Government premises Aawas No.893, North Civil Lines, Nagrath Chowk, Jabalpur, inspite of complaint made in that behalf.
2. The said premises were allotted as official residence to the then Speaker Shri Ishwardas Rohani. Admittedly, the allottee expired on 05.11.2013. Notwithstanding his death, the family members of the original allottee continued to occupy the official quarter. Indeed, the Competent Authority has now commenced the eviction proceedings because of institution of the present petition.
3. In the present petition, the private respondent No.5, who incidentally happens to be the son of the original allottee, has made a statement that he would vacate the premises by the end of March, 2015 and pay all the damages/compensation/rent/penalty in respect of the said premises to the State Authorities for overstaying the allotment term.
4. Be that as it may, the provision regarding the terms and conditions on which residence is allotted to Speaker and Deputy Speaker can be traced to the provisions in the Madhya Pradesh Adhyaksha Tatha Upadhyaksha (Vetan Tatha Bhatta) Adhiniyam, 1972. Section 4 of the said Adhiniyam reads thus:-
"4.(1) The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker shall be entitled, without payment of rent, to the use of a furnished residence thorough-out his term of office at Bhopal and for the period of one month immediately thereafter, and no charge shall fall on the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker personally in respect of the maintenance of such residence.
Explanation- For the purposes of this section "residence" includes the staff quarters and other buildings appurtenant thereto and the garden thereof, and "maintenance" in relation to a residence includes the payment of local rates and taxes and the provision of electricity and water.
(2) If the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker does not avail of the benefit of sub-section (1), he shall, in lieu thereof, be entitled to a house-rent allowance equal to twenty per centum of the salary payable to him under section 2.
(3) In addition to a free furnished residence at Bhopal under sub-section (1), the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker shall also be entitled to the use of a furnished residence without payment of rent at any other place which the State Government may, from time to time for purpose of this Act, declare to be the place of official residence of the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker, as the case may be, so long as such declaration remains in force."
(emphasis supplied)
5. On a bare perusal of this provision, it is clear that the allottee can legitimately continue to remain in occupation of the premises allotted to him as official residence for the period specified, commensurate with the term of his office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker, as the case may be. Sub- clause (1), however, predicates that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker can remain in official residence "throughout their term of office" and for a period of one month immediately thereafter. The term of office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker would ordinarily expire by efflux of time; but, in this case, because of the death of the father of respondent No.5 on 05.11.2013, the one month period would commence from that date as he had ceased to be the Speaker. The dependents of deceased allottee were obliged to vacate the premises within one month from the death of their predecessor. Having failed to do so, the Authorities should have proceeded against the occupants of the said Bungalow as unauthorized occupants on and from 05.12.2013.
6. As aforesaid, the Competent Authority has now issued a show cause notice as to why the occupants should not be evicted being unauthorized occupants. That proceedings have remained pending because of non- service of notice. Now that the notice is served, the said proceedings are scheduled for hearing on 10.12.2014. The occupants of the Bungalow are free to participate in the said proceedings. It is for that Authority to examine all issues on its own merits, in accordance with law, and including to consider the request of giving time to vacate the premises to the occupants if the said Authority is empowered to do so by virtue of the provisions of the M.P. Lok Parisar (Bedakhali) Adhiniyam, 1974 and the Rules framed thereunder and not otherwise.
7. The next question is: whether the amount towards damages/compensation/penalty/rent payable by the respondent No.5, as determined by the Executive Engineer, PWD, Division No.1, Jabalpur vide letter dated 17.11.2014, can be said to be just and proper? It appears that the said Authority has calculated the amount on the assumption that since there was no formal declaration that the Bungalow had ceased to be official residence of the Speaker, the occupation thereof by the dependents of the then Speaker was authorized. This view has been formed on a complete misreading of sub-clause (3) of Section 4 of the Adhiniyam of 1972. No doubt, upon issuance of declaration and so long as it remains in force, the occupant/allottee of the Bungalow would be entitled to the use of the premises as his official quarters; but that does not extricate the allottee from the rigours of Section 4(1), which postulates that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker would be entitled to use of official quarters "throughout their term of office" and for a period of one month immediately thereafter. No more and no less.
8. Indubitably, the allotment of premises to the Speaker for his official residence as per the entitlement under Section 4(1), is personal to him and governed by that provision; whereas the declaration referred to in Section 4(3) is ascribable to the premises having been notified as official residence of the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. The two are independent. Thus understood, the sub-clause (3) of Section 4 of the Adhiniyam of 1972 will have to be construed in the context of and ejusdem generis with the stipulation contained in Section 4(1). As a result, the calculation done by the Executive Engineer, PWD, Division No.1, Jabalpur towards compensation/ penalty/rent in respect of the official Bungalow as being payable by the dependents of the original allottee for the use of the premises on and from 05.12.2013 and until the same is vacated, is on an erroneous understanding of the provision. For, the allottee can occupy the premises as official residence only during his term of office as Speaker or Deputy Speaker and for a period of one month immediately thereafter. On ceasing to be the Speaker or Deputy Speaker and on expiry of one month period thereafter, in law, the occupation of the premises cannot be treated as authorized occupation for the purposes of provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Lok Parisar (Bedakhali) Adhiniyam, 1974.
9. A priori, the fact that the declaration under Section 4(3) remained in force even after the death of the original allottee cannot and does not create any right in favour of the allottee or his dependent to remain in possession of the stated premises. The premises, though continued to bear the status or tag of official residence of Speaker or Deputy Speaker, as the case may be, the occupation thereof by a person who had ceased to hold the stated office or as in the present case, by the dependents of the original allottee who ceased to hold the office of Speaker consequent to his death, will be nothing short of unauthorized occupation after expiry of one month period immediately from the date of ceasing to hold the office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker, for the purposes of Adhiniyam of 1972 and more particularly, in the context of the provisions of Adhiniyam of 1974.
10. Reverting back to the issue of compensation/penalty/ rent for the unauthorized user of the premises, we had called upon the Advocate for the respondent-State to submit a fresh calculation on the basis of the extant regulations in that behalf. He has submitted the calculation done by the officer on the basis of the extant norms specified in the Circulars issued by the State Government dated 24.10.2013 and 11.09.2014 respectively. The same reads thus:-
"SDO OMTI/Rent Control Authority of Omti Division Jabalpur "Rent for Bungalow no.893 (Old Type) at Nagrath Chowk, Jabalpur.
1. Rent for the month 01.12.2013 to 30.09.2014 (As per Commissioner Order No.1708/3-2/2013 dated 24.10.2013 attached @ Rs.10,662/- per month. I.e. of 10 months = Rs.1,06,620/-.
2. Rent for the month of Oct. 2014 (As per M.P. Govt. order No.F1- 25/2013/2-A(3) dated 11.09.2014 @ 30,000 per month i.e. for 1 month = 30,000 Rupees.
3. Total rent from December 2013 to Oct. 31st 2014 = Rs.1,36,620/-.
Sd/-
SDO Omti/Rent Control Authority of Omti Division, Jabalpur."
11. Accordingly, we set aside the communication of the Executive Engineer, PWD, Division No.1, Jabalpur dated 17.11.2014 and the accompanying chart therewith at pages 13 and 14 of the counter; and instead direct the said Authority to compute/determine amount towards penalty/compensation/rent and other outgoings to issue a fresh demand to the respondent No.5 within two weeks from today as per the extant norms for unauthorized user of the public premises on and from 05.12.2013 until the same is vacated by the respondent No.5 and other dependents of the original allottee. The respondent No.5 shall pay the amount as demanded within the time specified in the demand notice itself, without fail.
12. Needless to observe that if the respondent No.5 has already paid any amount towards compensation/ rent/penalty in respect of the said premises, that amount may be adjusted against the fresh demand as determined by the Executive Engineer, PWD, Division No.1, Jabalpur on the basis of the norms applicable for unauthorized user of the public premises.
13. Besides this, nothing more is required to be said in this petition. The same is disposed of on the above terms.