A Division Bench of the J&K High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and First Puisne Judge Justice Rajesh Bindal while coming down heavily over the JMC over allotment of JMC Flats on pick and choose basis to its ex-employees and others directed Advocate Sachin Gupta appearing for JMC to place on record the complete details of all the properties of the Corporation, the dates of allotments, the particulars of allottees including designations and the nature and sizes of the property as well as the consideration/rental, which is being paid by the allottees and full details of the outstanding arrears till today.
The Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Gita Mittal further directed that the JMC shall also give details of the action taken against the allottees for non-payment of dues, if any, and this information shall be given in a tabulation before the Division Bench within one week from today.
These significant directions were passed in a much publicized Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Irtiza Mushtaq a practicing lawyer of J&K High Court seeking quashment of orders whereby Jammu Municipal Corporation has allotted 10 Municipal Flats situated at Gandhi Nagar, Jammu on pick and choose basis to its ex-employees and some private persons.
When this PIL came up for hearing Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Rahul Raina, Supriya Chouhan and Mohd. Zulkarnain Chowdhary appearing for the petitioner submitted that the instant PIL highlights the illegal allotment of prime JMC Flats situated at Gandhi Nagar, Jammu and the said allotments were made in favour of Ex-Employees without following any procedure/ criteria and the beneficiaries include Jeet Lal Gupta (IAS) Former Commissioner/Secretary to Govt. of J&K H&UDD, R.S. Jamwal (KAS) Former Joint Commissioner (Adm) JMC, Madan Mohan Khajooria Ex-PA to Commissioner JMC, Bharat Bhushan (Driver) JMC, Surinder Kumar PSO to Commissioner/ Secretary to Govt. of J&K H&UDD, Balbir Singh (Driver SUDA), Narinder Sharma (President NGO-PEACE), Chain Singh S/o Chhato Ram and Kharati Lal S/o Mani Ram.
Advocate S.S. Ahmed vehemently argued that the Former Commissioner/Secretary H&UDD and Former Joint Commissioner (Adm) R.S. Jamwal are paying Rs.900/- to Rs.1000/- per month as rent for the Municipal Flats situated in the posh Gandhi Nagar, Jammu.
Advocate S.S. Ahmed further submitted that the Former Commissioner/Secretary H&UDD managed lease of the municipal flat for a term of 40 years w.e.f. December, 20, 2012 with a rent of Rs.1000/- per month and the said high profile IAS officer succeeded in inducting his nephew Rahul Gupta as one of the lessees in the lease deed.
Advocate S.S. Ahmed further pointed out that the JMC also allotted a cattle pound in favour of Former Joint Commissioner (Adm) R.S. Jamwal (KAS) and the cattle pound was converted into a residential Flat and JMC spent more than Rs.30.00 Lakh for its renovation. Advocate Ahmed further submitted that R.S. Jamwal (KAS) was at the fag end of his service when the then Municipal Commissioner Mandeep Kour (IAS) allotted Municipal Quarter No.10 originally a cattle pound in favour of her subordinate as a retirement gift. Not only this the Flats have also been allotted in favour of Driver and PSO of Former Commissioner/Secretary H&UDD.
Advocate S.S. Ahmed further submitted that there is complete loot of Municipal assets in JMC and the beneficiaries of the prime properties are mostly the employees/kith and kins of the employees of the Corporation. He further submitted that the aforesaid instances of illegal allotment in favour of ex-employees and others is just a tip of the ice-berg as a Malaria/DTT Centre situated in front of Women’s College Parade, Jammu was illegally allotted to an Ex-Chief Khilafwarzi Officer who later converted the said Malaria Centre into a commercial establishment and there are several such cases and only a court monitored probe can unearth the allotment scam of JMC employees.
Advocate S.S. Ahmed cited several Judgments of the Supreme Court titled Shiv Sagar Tiwari V/s Union of India, Common Cause V/s Union of India (illegal allotment of petrol pumps by Capt. Satish Sharma Former Union Minister), Sheela Koul V/s Union of India to buttress his arguments that Municipal assets are state largesse and without a rationale/transparent criteria no such allotments could have been made and further submitted that the allotments were made in an arbitrary manner in violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. He further submitted that valuable assets of JMC were distributed in an irrational manner by throwing law of the land to winds.
After considering the submissions of Advocate S.S. Ahmed the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Gita Mittal observed, “By way of the instant writ petition a challenge is laid to the allotment of prime municipal properties as well as commercial properties by the Jammu Municipal Corporation on pick and choose basis without adopting or following any criteria, effecting illegal allotments of municipal quarters or flats on extraneous considerations in favour of ex-employees of Jammu Municipal Corporation as well as private persons. The petitioner has given some instances to support the contentions”.
Senior Advocate R.K. Gupta with Advocates Prem Sadotra and Uday Baskar appeared for R.S. Jamwal (KAS) and Madan Mohan Khajuria Ex-PA to Commissioner JMC, Senior Advocate U.K. Jalali with Advocate Mohd. Rayaz appeared for Chain Singh (a private person), Advocate S.K. Anand for Kharati Lal (private person) Advocate Ajay Bakshi for Narinder Sharma President PEACE (NGO), Advocate K.K. Jandial for Bharat Bhushan (Driver), whereas Senior AAG S.S. Nanda appeared for Housing and Urban Development Department.
Both the Senior Counsel argued on the maintainability of the PIL and the locus standi of the petitioner who is a practicing lawyer. Senior Advocate U.K. Jalali also referred a Judgment of the Apex Court in this regard. However the Division Bench in the open court observed that such plea will be considered later on.JNF