Mumbai: The Bombay high court ruled on Monday that no person, including judges, would be entitled to hold more than one house or tenement at a time in Maharashtra under any state government scheme.
The court has directed the state to frame guidelines in this regard within six months.
The division bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice B.H. Dangre passed this judgment, while deciding the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by scribe-turned-social activist Ketan Tirodkar against people having more than one flat under chief minister’s (CM) quota.
The bench held that there was nothing wrong if the government comes up with a scheme to allot houses to judges and other persons at a concessional rate, but if a person took advantage of this and obtained more than one house, it would amount to using their position for unjust enrichment.
However, the bench said, “Having one tenement from any of the schemes floated by the state government or any other authority under its control and having multiple houses from the state government are two different things.”
The bench in its judgement has directed the state government to formulate a scheme by which a person, including judges and government officers, would be entitled to only one house under any scheme in the state.
The bench has clarified that if a person wants to upgrade or opt for a flat in any other city, he or she would have to surrender the existing flat to the government so as to be entitled for allotment in a better scheme.
Apart from challenging people obtaining more than one house under CM quota Mr Tirodkar had also questioned the state government’s decision to construct a high-rise residential building in suburban Oshiwara for sitting HC judges. He had pointed out that the building has a total of 63 tenements, of which 39 have been allotted to sitting HC judges.
According to him a “pick-and-choose method” was being used and some of the judges who were already owned houses under a different government scheme had been allotted flats.
