Press "Enter" to skip to content

SC no to early hearing on plea against two houses for UP CM

image

The Supreme Court today said that it would hear a plea challenging the allotment of two houses in Lucknow to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav after the upcoming Assembly polls in the state.

“This is a PIL. Now there are elections in Uttar Pradesh.

We will post this PIL (for hearing) after the elections,” a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N V Ramana said.

The apex court was hearing a petition, filed by NGO Lok Prahari, which has sought cancellation of allotment of one of the houses at 4, Vikramaditya Marg in Lucknow, which was allotted to Yadav recently.

The plea has said that Yadav is residing at 5, Kalidas Marg in Lucknow, which is the official residence of the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, and he has allegedly “occupied” 4, Vikramaditya Marg also.

At the outset of the hearing, the bench observed, “He (Yadav) is the Chief Minister. He might be using one house as secretariat, for official purpose and other as residence.” “What kind of petition are you filing,” the bench asked the petitioner, adding, “He is not a minister, he is the Chief Minister.”

When the petitioner told the bench that there were “legal issues” involved in the matter, the bench observed, “We have so many important issues to deal with in which people are in jail.”

During the hearing, the petitioner referred to the apex court’s last year’s judgement in which the court had held that former UP Chief Ministers would have to vacate their official accomodations in two months while quashing the state rules giving “largesse” only to former CMs without any “element of reasonableness”.

To this, the bench observed, “This (judgement) is for after retirement. Who cares after retirement? This (issue raised in the plea) is a different issue.” The petitioner has approached the apex court after a plea on the issue was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court.

(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Source: dnaindia.com