Mulayam, Akhilesh move SC seeking time to vacate official residences

New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) Samajwadi Party leaders and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav approached the Supreme Court on Monday to extend their stay in their official residences.

The father-son duo have sought appropriate time to vacate their official residences allocated by the Uttar Pradesh government.

They moved the apex court as by its May 7 judgment, the court had set aside a provision of a law that allowed government accommodation to former Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers, terming it "arbitrary and discriminatory" as it violated the concept of equality.

The leaders earlier approached the UP government seeking time to vacate their official residences and move to their own accommodation.

Mulayam Singh recently wrote to the Estate Department saying he did not have any alternative suitable residential accommodation in the city for shifting within the deadline fixed by the department and he would need two years to shift to a new residence.

In the apex court judgment, a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said once a Chief Minister demits office, there was nothing to distinguish him or her from a common man.

Setting aside the provision of the law passed by the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the bench had said such bungalows constitute "public property which by itself is scarce and meant for use of current holders of public offices".

The apex court had struck down Section 4(3) of the Uttar Pradesh Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1981, as amended by then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's government in 2016, allowing the state's former Chief Ministers to be entitled to allotment of government accommodation for their life time.

In its judgment, the top court said that "natural resources, public lands and public goods like government bungalows/official residence are public property that belongs to the people of the country".