New Delhi,
Should former chief ministers be allowed to avail the facility of government bungalows?

Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, amicus curiae in a case against such a law in Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday suggested to the Supreme Court that it was arbitrary and was liable to be struck down.

Subramanium told a Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi that the Uttar Pradesh law was intended to “overcome” the top court’s August 2016 order for eviction of former chief ministers from government bungalows in two months.

The Bench is seized of a PIL filed by Lok Prahari, an NGO, challenging the 2016 amendments to the Uttar Pradesh Ministers Provisions Act, 1981 during the then Akhilesh Yadav government.

The amendment was introduced following the top court’s August 1, 2016 verdict ordering eviction of official bungalows allotted to six former chief ministers of the state in two months after it concluded that the 1997 rules on allotment brought in by the state government were in contravention of the existing Uttar Pradesh Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act- 1981.

Subramanium said ministers who demitted office did not require public property.

“A large number of bungalows had also been given to trusts,” he submitted.

As the Bench wanted to know if the scope of the PIL could be extended to similar provisions in five other states, Subramanium said in such a situation, it would have to hear the states concerned.

The UP Government had earlier defended it saying the facility given to former chief ministers was in line with similar facility given to former Presidents, Prime Ministers and Vice Presidents.

Subramanium said if the court wanted to expand the scope of the PIL, then it will have to hear the states and the Centre.

On behalf of the NGO, former bureaucrat SN Shukla questioned the state’s contention on the ground that the constitutional position of the two sets of functionaries was different and in-comparable.