The Centre has been restrained from recovering arrears of rent fixed at market rates from soldiers transferred from the Border Security Force to the Special Protection Group (SPG) in Delhi and transferred back to the BSF and posted in J&K.
When they were brought to the SPG on deputation from the BSF, they were housed in the vicinity of the elite group’s headquarters in Delhi. But the government imposed a hefty burden on them for retaining the family accommodation even after their transfer.
The Delhi high court has now realised the genuineness of their problem of getting proper accommodation in the costly national capital. The court said on Tuesday it was not against personnel retaining SPG flats for their families.
“They serve the country and are duty-bound to… if the exigency of their service so demanded… to lay down their lives for the nation,” justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw observed.
He scrapped the Centre’s directive asking these personnel to pay market rent for availing the SPG accommodation. The court also directed the authorities not to evict them.
“Though the petitioners aren’t found to have had any right to retain the accommodation, it is felt that if they are burdened with the penal charges levied on them, it will affect their morale.”
Reiterating the apex court’s judgment in Captain Virendra Kumar’s case of 1981, justice Endlaw castigated the government for being ‘miserly’ while dealing with security personnel.
In Kumar’s case, SC had observed that “unimaginative” ways of authorities were bound to have a “long-term impact on soldiers”.
