RENT PENALTY: UT GETS NOTICE ON EX-CHIEF SECY’S PLEA

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh administration was issued a notice by the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on Monday for charging a penalty on rent from HS Dhesi, former Haryana chief secretary, for overstaying in a government accommodation in 2010.

In his plea to HC, Dhesi, who retired as chief secretary in June 2019, sought the quashing of March 2011 and October 2019 letters from the administration which said a penal rent 50 times that of the normal fee was imposed on him for overstay in a Sector-7 accommodation upon his transfer to Delhi in June 2010.

Dhesi told the court that he was being charged ₹3.23 lakh penal rent out of a total of ₹ 6.59 lakh by the administration for overstay in the accommodation. He had not been able to vacate it as his official accommodation was not ready, he pleaded.

HC was told that as the administration had not issued him a no dues certificate because of which his gratuity of ₹20lakh had not been released by the government. HC was told that six months of Dhesi’s retention period from June 2010 had not been calculated. The HC has sought the administration’s response by June 26.

PVT SCHOOLS MOVE HC, UT TO REPLY BY JULY 1

The HC on Monday put the UT administration on notice after a plea was received from the city’s private schools, challenging the move to allow schools to only charge tuition fee during the lockdown. The HC bench of justice BS Walia has sought response from the UT by July 1.

The plea has been filed by Independent Schools’ Association Chandigarh, a body of 78 private schools of the city.

The body has sought quashing of the notification issued on June 3 by the UT adviser to the administrator under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, directing schools to collect only monthly tuition fee from students till further orders, without increasing it for the academic year 2020-21.