The Bombay High Court today held that government employees have no right to stay in official quarters after retirement and their heirs cannot claim such a right.
Staff quarters are "public properties" and "no court can allow any public property to be usurped by private citizens who then will use it for profiteering", the court said.
"Government officers have no authority over the state's properties or assets," the court said.
The high court was hearing petitions filed by over 1,500 retired employees of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation against eviction notices issued by the civic body. These employees had refused to vacate the quarters after retirement.
Some of these quarters were occupied by the kin of former employees. In some cases the relatives continued to occupy the quarters even when the employee himself/herself was dead.
BMC lawyer Anil Sakhre said as per the corporation's earlier policy, it granted ownership rights or extended lease to the former employees in some cases. However, in the 1990s, owing to space crunch, BMC decided against granting permanent tenancy or ownership rights.
In a city like Mumbai which is starved of space, official accommodation are often short in supply and many employees, even those employed in emergency services, are forced to forgo quarters or wait endlessly for allotment, he said.
The petitioners argued that many of them were living in these quarters since 1960s or 70s, and many were mere (former) class-3 or class-4 employees who couldn't afford alternative accommodation.
HC however held that petitioners were wrongly retaining the quarters and granting them relief would suggest that court was "validating illegal retention of public property.
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