THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO W.P.No. 1595 of 2011 Date: 07.02.2011 Between : M.Gopalrao, S/o. Seetharamarao & 3 others. … Petitioners And The Executive Engineer & another. … Respondents ORDER: This writ petition has been instituted by four employees, who have since retired from the service of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. They are questioning the orders passed by the Executive Engineer, through his circular Memo, dated 04.01.2011, requiring the petitioners to vacate the Government quarters under their occupation. The case of the writ petitioners is that they have been in occupation of these quarters for a very long time and they have carried out the annual maintenance and upkeep of these quarters entirely on their own expenditure, and apart from developing an emotional attachment. To these quarters, they have foregone what is paid to the other employees as house rent allowance, which itself has worked out to few lakhs of rupees. Hence, the retired employees of the State Government have represented to the Government as early as on 23.06.1999 to allow and permit them to continue in occupation of the quarters of the Government, on payment of normal or nominal rent together with water and electricity consumption charges. They also seek that the State Government should consider granting ownership rights over the quarters under their occupation for long periods. Since the representation of the Government employees is still under examination of the Government, and till such time, a final decision is taken in the matter by the Government, the respondents are not justified in directing the petitioners to vacate the quarters under their occupation and also threaten them with the prospects of forceful eviction from there from. 2. The learned Assistant Government Pleader for Irrigation, at my request, has obtained instructions in the matter from the Executive Engineer. She submits that several quarters are got constructed at Camp Colony, G.V.Gudem, Nalgonda, for providing housing accommodation to the employees of the project. It is stated that there are only two quarters constructed for accommodating the Superintending Engineer and eight quarters for accommodating Executive Engineers and fifteen quarters for accommodating Deputy Executive Engineers, whereas fifty six Nos. of ‘A’ type, 151 Nos. of ‘B’ type and 161 of ‘C’ type quarters are constructed, which will be allocated to Assistant Engineers or Junior Engineers, Ministerial employees and IV grade employees of the project. There was acute necessity felt for these quarters, as at the project side, suitable private residential accommodations will not be available in good numbers and consequently, the employees of the project will be finding it difficult to have proper civic amenities and consequently, seek for allotment of the Government quarters. The project management is feeling enormous pressure from the serving employees for allotting them appropriate residential accommodation for their personal occupation. Hence, the writ petitioners, who have been permitted to occupy the quarters, though they have retired from service of the Government long years back, have to necessarily vacate them, so that the immediate necessities of the serving employees will be met with. Further, this project is likely to continue for another four to five years period and hence, the writ petitioners are required to vacate the same. It was also pointed out by the learned Assistant Government Pleader that the writ petitioners themselves have sought for time till 31.01.2011 for vacating the quarters of their occupation and considering their request, the time was accorded till 31.01.2011 and hence, the learned Government Pleader contends that there are no bona fides behind this litigation. 3. Government constructs quarters for accommodating the residential needs of the serving employees. These quarters are constructed so as to ensure that the Government servants will be able to pay more attention and focus completely on their job content without being bothered much about securing suitable accommodation for themselves. The Government quarters are, therefore, provided for the basic requirements for the families of the Government servants. Decent accommodation, when is made available, the Government servant is expected to be rid off the problems or hassles likely to be faced by them by hiring private accommodations. Since Government accommodations are made available, such Government servants are denied entitlement to be paid the house rent allowance. House rent allowance is normally paid to the Government servants to enable them offset the expenditure which they are likely to incur for securing suitable private accommodation. Therefore, the petitioners cannot make an issue out of non- receipt by them of the house rent allowances during the period when they occupy Government quarters. If the Government servants were to stake a claim for ownership rights on Government quarters, the Government would not be able to meet the demand for residential accommodation by their serving employees. The Government will only be constructing Government quarters on an eternal basis, as the same are bound to be occupied by one Government servant or the other and when he claims proprietary rights over them, the Government will be eternally pursuing the construction activity of Government quarters, little bothering about rest of the social welfare measures, which it was required to undertake. Therefore, public interest does not permit or allow the State Government to indulge in such avoidable and wasteful expenditure. Civil servants across the board occupy a particular status of their own. They receive appropriate salaries and allowances, commensurate with the nature of duties and responsibilities discharged by them. They have a status of their own to feel content with. Therefore, in return for the services rendered by them, the Government cannot be compelled to confer proprietary rights on Government estates. Therefore, there are no merits in this writ petition. Hence, this writ petition is dismissed at the admission stage, but however without costs. _____________________________ NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO, J Dated: 07.02.2011 ksld/ysk HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO W.P.NO. 1595 OF 2011 7th day of February, 2011 KSLD/ysk