The High Court of Patna says that the Former Chief Ministers of Bihar can not hold Government Bungalows for Life

The Patna High Court said on Tuesday that the former prime ministers of Bihar can not occupy the government bungalows that were assigned to them for life. The court ordered former state ministers, including incumbent Nitish Kumar, to vacate these bungalows, IANS reported. Kumar still retains a bungalow he was assigned during his last term as chief minister, while residing in another official bungalow.

Former Prime Ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Jagannath Mishra also continue in their official bungalows, as does Satish Prasad Singh, who was prime minister for five days in 1968.

On January 8, the Patna High Court issued notices to the Bihar government and to all former prime ministers, as well as to Nitish Kumar, for having been assigned official bungalows for life. The court also sought to know why it should not override a law passed in 2010, which allows bungalows to be assigned for life.

The court issued the notification while rejecting a statement made by Rashtriya Janata Dal, leader and former deputy prime minister, Tejashwi Yadav, against the verdict of a single-judge tribunal in October last year. The bank had rejected his request against the direction of the state government to evict the government bungalow.

On February 8, the Supreme Court dismissed Yadav’s petition against the order approved by the division court of the Patna Superior Court. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Judges Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Yadav for challenging the High Court decision.