SC serves contempt notice to WB Housing Secy

New Delhi, Sep 26: The Supreme Court today issued a contempt of court notice to the West Bengal Housing Secretary for not complying with the court orders, asking for details of unauthorised occupants of the government accommodation in the state.

A bench comprising Justice B N Agarwal and Justice P P Naolekar, issued the contempt notice after the counsel for the state submitted that he had returned seven letters to the Housing Secretary, asking for the details to be placed before the court.

However, he received no response from the government and was therefore, not able to provide details of the illegal occupants in the state.

The apex court also issued notices to eight politicians of Orissa, including former state chief ministers Hemanand Biswal and Girdhar Gomang, MPs, Parasana Acharya and Dharmendra Pardhan, former ministers Ved Prakash Agarwal and Prasad Kumar Hari Chandan and two ex-MLAs Vijay Mahapatra and Shambu Nath Nayak.

The court also directed to publish the list of unauthorised occupants in Orissa in all the leading newspapers. There are 108 unauthorised occupants in the state.

The apex court also directed Estate officers of Jammu and Kashmir to be personally present in the court on October 31, to explain why eviction proceedings have not been initiated against the illegal occupants of the government accommodation in the state.

The Jammu and Kashmir government had said that since Srinager is the summer capital and Jammu is the winter capital of the state, the MLAs could be shown as migrants. However, the apex court held the explanation as wrong.

Besides Jammu and Kashmir, the court also directed state governments of west Bengal and Orissa to issue eviction notices to all the illegal occupants in their respective states.

The court was, however, satisfied with the action taken by the Madhya Pradesh government against such illegal occupants of the government accommodation in the state.

The court fixed November 7, as the next date of hearing.

UNI