Ex-UP CMs Mulayam and Akhilesh move SC for time to vacate official bungalows

The plea has been filed in the backdrop of the May 7 apex court judgement that had struck down an amendment in a state legislation allowing former chief ministers to retain government accommodation even after demitting office.

File Image/ Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Former UP chief ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav today moved the Supreme Court seeking "appropriate time" for vacating their official residences allocated by the Uttar Pradesh government. The plea has been filed in the backdrop of the May 7 apex court judgement that had struck down an amendment in a state legislation allowing former chief ministers to retain government accommodation even after demitting office. The father-son duo had earlier moved the UP government seeking two years' time to vacate their official residences and shifting to their private accommodations in Lucknow. The former chief ministers, in their plea filed through advocate Garima Bajaj, have sought appropriate time to vacate their official bungalows. The top court had on May 7 held that former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office and had said that a chief minister was at par with a common man once his or her term ends. Observing that a Chief Minister cannot continue to occupy public property like government bungalows which belong to people of the country, a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi had struck down the provision saying it had the effect of creating a separate class of citizens for conferment of benefits by way of distribution of public property on the basis of the previous public office held by them. The top court had passed the order on a petition filed by an NGO Lok Prahari challenging the amendments made by the erstwhile Akhilesh Yadav government to the 'UP Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1981'. The court, in its 29-page order, had said once such persons demit public office held by them, there is nothing to distinguish them from the common man.