Can you buy the government quarters you lived in during service? Gujarat high court answers

NEW DELHI: The Gujarat high court, in its order dated July 6, has ruled that a person has no legal right to demand that government quarters be sold to him after retirement, or to continue occupying one, simply because it was allotted to a family member during their government service.Justice J.C. Doshi dismissed a long-running case filed by the president of an employees' association who was himself not a government employee, and who was found to be living in a quarter that had originally been allotted to his retired mother.What was the issueRajnikant Kamaljit Solanki is the president of the Villa "C" Colony Karmachari Association in Ahmedabad. He challenged a 2024 order of the civil court that had dismissed his case.

In that case, Solanki had asked the court to declare that people living in the colony — homes built for Class-IV government workers — could not be thrown out, according to the court order.He further asked the state government to sell these homes to the residents at a low price, like it had done for some other government colonies before.But as the case went on, several problems showed up in Solanki's own claims. During questioning, he admitted he did not know how many trustees were part of the association's trust when he filed the case.

He then changed his answer and said 11 to 15 trustees are part of it now. The court also found that one document showed only five people had signed the resolution that gave him permission to file the case, but another paper showed 15 people had signed the affidavit allowing him to do so.

The court pointed out that these two documents did not match.He also could not say for sure whether the 21 people he claimed to be representing had actually retired from their government jobs or not.He further admitted that the home he was living in was never allotted to him and it was only allotted to his mother, who has since retired from her job. He could not say when the home was given to his mother, and he also did not have a copy of the allotment letter to show this.Why the court rejected the appealThe Gujarat high court held that government quarters are given to employees only for the period they are in service, pointing to the standard allotment letter which states a quarter is allotted "only for the tenure during which he/she holds the office in this Government at Ahmedabad.""It is clear that the allotment of the residential quarter to the plaintiff was subject to terms and conditions stated hereinabove. It is not absolute and permanent allotment. It is always subject to service conditions and governed by the service regulations. The Government employee as of right cannot claim to continue in a Government premises post superannuation."The court said the case had no real basis and was frivolous. It further added that Solanki had no legal right to ask for protection for his own home or the homes of the 21 retired employees, and no right to ask the government to sell them these quarters."The unauthorized occupation of government quarters is not a mere breach of the terms of allotment; it constitutes an unlawful deprivation of a scarce public resource held by the State in trust for eligible public servants."The court held that these homes belong to the public, and when people keep living in them without permission, they are unfairly taking away something meant for other eligible workers."This court is, therefore, of the considered view that unauthorized occupation of government quarters has assumed the character of a public menace.

Any leniency towards such illegal retention not only rewards disobedience of law, but also prejudices the rights of eligible employees awaiting accommodation."The court also turned down Solanki's argument that since the government had sold similar quarters to workers in other colonies before, it should do the same here. The judge called this demand "difficult to accept" and even described it as an "awful and appalling contention."The appeal was rejected, and Solanki was directed to pay Rs 10,000 as costs within 15 days."For the foregoing reasons, the appeal fails and accordingly, stands dismissed with the costs of Rs. 10,000 to be paid by the appellant - plaintiff to the Gujarat State Legal Services Authority within a period of 15 days from today."