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Union of India Through Director of Estates v. Onkar Nath Dhar (Dead) Thr. LR.

Miscellaneous Application · 2021 INSC 633Decided 7 Oct 2021
Miscellaneous Application No. 1468 of 2021
Justice Hemant Gupta · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

This order disposed of three applications connected to the Supreme Court's own earlier order of 5 August 2021: one sought recall of that order because the original respondent, Omkar Nath Dhar, had died before it was passed without his legal heirs being brought on record, and two others (filed by similarly placed retired government employees who are Kashmiri migrants occupying Delhi/NCR government housing) sought the same benefit as 31 retirees from an earlier case (J.L. Koul), relying on a 2017 Office Memorandum scheme that let them keep government housing indefinitely.

Decision Breakdown

The Court declined to recall its 5 August 2021 order and rejected the applicants' reliance on the 2017 scheme, holding that government accommodation is meant for serving employees and that the Office Memorandum permitting retired Kashmiri-migrant employees to retain it indefinitely was arbitrary and violated Article 14 of the Constitution. It held such employees could retain government accommodation for a maximum of three years after retirement before shifting to the National Capital Region or alternative/transit arrangements. All three applications were dismissed, though the Court extended the late Mr. Dhar's family's deadline to vacate their premises to 30 November 2021 and allowed the Union to later seek similar modification against the 31 J.L. Koul retirees.

Lesson Learnt

Humanitarian concessions granted by government policy, such as long-term retention of official housing, cannot continue indefinitely once they start to unreasonably favour one group of retirees over others; courts can strike such schemes down as discriminatory under Article 14.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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