Bombay HC Terms CM’s Discretionary Quota Illegal
The Bombay High Court (HC) recently junked the chief minister’s discretionary housing quota calling it illegal. The court also ordered the state government not to make any more allotments of MHADA and UCL Act apartments available under the chief minister’s quota.
The CM’s discretionary quota
Under the Maharashtra chief minister’s discretionary allotment quota, the chief minister has absolute discretion to allot the apartments to certain individuals at concession rates. People who usually avail apartments under this quota are artists, freedom-fighters, sports persons, specific government employees and so on. The CM’s discretionary quota has 2 per cent of flats available under the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and about 5 percent flats available under the purview of the Urban Ceiling Land (UCL) Act.
The CM’s quota, however, has attracted several criticisms as it has been misused to provide some influential politicians and relatives of MLAs and MLCs, some of these apartments. There have also been several cases filed against such misuse, in the Bombay High Court. Several former government employees had also complained that they were eligible under the quota since 1989, but were still in the waiting list.
HC calls the quota ‘bad in law’
Several public interest litigations (PILs) and cases have been filed in the Bombay HC. Following some of these hearings, the Bombay HC called an absolute discretion of the chief minister for allotting apartments bad in law. The court also observed that the allotment method adopted by the state government was not transparent and the government was treating at as a private venture. The court said that the existence of such schemes must be made aware to the public. The court ordered the state government to form a fresh policy which was fair to the public.
The HC, however, maintained that the status of allotment of apartments made under the discretionary quota prior to this decision would be decided in another PIL.
