UP ex-cms can’t stay in govt bungalows: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court struck down on Monday a provision of an Uttar Pradesh law that let former chief ministers retain government bungalows, a ruling that is likely to have a sweeping impact in several other states where former elected representatives and public servants continue to enjoy government perks.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi said “a chief minister was at par with a common man once his or her term ends” and the allotment of a government bungalow “would not be guided by the constitutional principle of equality”.

Monday’s order will mean eviction for six former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh — Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajnath Singh, Congress’s ND Tiwari and former BJP leader Kalyan Singh — all of who have bungalows in leafy Lucknow neighbourhoods.

Gogoi was part of a bench along with justice R Banumathi hearing a petition by a non-profit that challenged an amendment moved by the then Akhilesh Yadav government in 2016 to the UP Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1981.

The amendment gave bungalows to former chief ministers for as long as they lived.

“The state government will study the order and a view will be taken once chief minister Yogi Adityanath is back from campaigning in Karnataka,” said a UP government officer, asking not to be named.

Spokespersons of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party said they will react after they go through the ruling.