Former Chief Ministers of Bihar including Nitish Kumar have received a notice from Patna high court on allowance of residing in official bungalows throughout life. The list includes names such as- Satish Kumar Singh, Dr. Jagannath Mishra, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Rabri Devi, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The high court has sought reply from them within four weeks of time.
The Patna high court has questioned ex-Bihar CMs asking- Why the former Chief Ministers cannot live in private accommodations in the city, despite being provided high-security?
A division bench of Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice Anjana Mishra issued notices to the ex-CMs for being allotted government bungalows for life and asked why not these allotments be quashed. The next date of hearing in this case is set for February 11.
In October last year, the Patna High Court rejected Tejashwi’s appeal against the Bihar government’s plea to evict him from his official residence at 5, Deshratna Marg. In return he had filed a fresh appeal which recently got rejected by the division bench of Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Anjana Mishra who took suo motu cognizance of the rule and rejected the plea of Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav on January 7 for retaining his official bungalow at 5 Deshratna Marg.
After this he has decided to move to the Supreme Court against high court’s order.
The Court has expressed that procedure of bungalow allotment is not transparent. The surprise came in on how two bungalows can be occupied by a person. For example- Even after becoming the Chief Minister again Nitish Kumar retained the government bungalow at the 7, Circular road which was allotted to him when he was ex-Chief Minister of the state.
Last year in Uttar Pradesh, there was a big hue and cry over the same issue in which Supreme Court ruled out the procedure of Uttar Pradesh government of bungalow allotment to former CMs.
