By IANS
New Delhi : Exasperated at politicians and bureaucrats overstaying in government accommodations despites its orders, the Supreme Court Wednesday wondered if the use of “third degree” methods against defaulters would solve the problem.
A bench headed by Justice B.N. Agrawal used the term “third degree” as a possible solution to the problem, while suggesting the government a host of stringent measures.
The bench, which also included Justices S.H. Kapadia and B.N. Gupta, however, did not elaborate what it actually meant by the “third degree”.
Upset over the obduracy of bureaucrats and politicians in overstaying at government accommodations, the bench remarked that there was no dearth of stringent measures, which could be adopted to tackle the problem.
It said the stringent measures could range from disconnecting the water and power supply of the overstaying occupants to their prosecution for trespassing under Section 441 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other “third degree methods”.
The bench also reiterated its earlier suggestion to the government, which included recovery of penal rent and stoppage of the pension of the retired government employees.
It was exasperated that the government was not able to file its detailed affidavit on the issue of making the offence of trespassing under Section 441 of the IPC cognisable and non-bailable to give more teeth to the government agency in dealing with the problem.
The bench had earlier asked the central and state governments to make their stand clear on making Section 441 a cognisable and non-bailable offence – as Orissa and Uttar Pradesh have done.
But with the central government failing to file its affidavit, the bench adjourned the matter to Oct 30, giving the government a deadline of Oct 23 to file its detailed affidavit.
Meanwhile, a status report filed by the government about the overstaying politicians in Delhi showed that Gayatri Devi of Jaipur owes a rent of Rs 2.47 million to the government for the bungalow that she occupies in New Delhi.
Others who owed a huge rent to the government include senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh (Rs.1.8 million), the Rajasthan government (Rs.1.5 million) and late actor-turned-MP Sunil Dutt’s family (Rs.77,000).