JAMMU: In a jolt to Choudhary Lal Singh, former MP and founder Dogra Swabhiman Sanganthan, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Monday imposed a penalty of Rs 25000, while dismissing his plea against eviction from government bungalow in Jammu on security considerations.
Pronouncing judgement in CM Nos. 7467/2022 & 7468/2022 in
WP(C) PIL No. 17/2020A title Prof. S.K.Bhalla through advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed and others vs UT of J&K and others, the Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice (Acting) Tashi Rabstan and Justice Rajesh Sekhri has termed Lal Singh plea as an abuse of the process of law.
In his plea Lal Singh stated that he was enlisted in the category of Z-Security of CRPF by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the administration is evicting him from Government accomodation because he is a political opponent of the present dispensation at the Centre and in the Union Territory.
The government had initiated the proceedings under the J&K Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized occupants) Act, 1988 against Singh, who moved the court vide a writ petition bearing WP(C) number 2443 of 2022.
The said writ petition came to be dismissed as withdrawn by learned Single Bench of this Court vide order dated 15.11.2022, and Singh was given six-week-time to vacate the Government accommodation in question.
However, for an injunction against this order, Singh further moved an application, maintaining that the Union Government has taken a categoric stand that people, who are occupying the accommodation for security reasons, need to be protected.
Though applicant has admitted that the writ petition filed by him against
proceedings initiated against him under the Public Premises Act was dismissed as withdrawn by learned Single Bench of this Court, yet he has come up with the instant applicant with the sole intention to prolong his unauthorized occupation of the Government Bungalow, when the period of six weeks granted to him for vacation of the Bungalow would expire tomorrow on 27.12.2022. This amounts of an abuse of the process of law, reads the judgement.
The court observed that security
assessment and entitlement to Government accommodation are two different issues and cannot be intermingled to defeat the process of law. The present application filed by the applicant is devoid of merit and stands dismissed with Rs 25000 cost, the court ordered.