New Delhi, May 7: The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the law passed by Uttar Pradesh govt granting permanent residential accommodation to former Chief Ministers of the state. With the new order in place, no bungalows will be given to Chief Ministers after the completion of their tenure in the office.

The Apex Court in its order said that Former Chief Ministers of the state are not entitled to government bungalows. The decision was taken by the apex court while hearing a public interest litigation filed by NGO Lokprahari. Reports inform that the plea had challenged the decision of the government to allot official bungalows to Chief Ministers after their tenure in the office got over.

While striking down the Uttar Pradesh government's law granting permanent residential accommodation to former CMs, Supreme Court said, Section 4(3) of UP Ministers (salaries, allowances & miscellaneous provisions) Act, 2016 is unconstitutional.

A bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi was delivering judgment in a PIL by NGO Lok Prahari challenging amendments in the state laws allowing former chief ministers (CM) of Uttar Pradesh to continue occupying government bungalows. The judgment said, “We had set out few questions for determination. Whether retention of official accommodation by such former public servants after they demit office is violative of the Constitution”.

To recall, the Supreme Court in 2016, had struck down the Constitutional validity of the law formulated by the then Uttar Pradesh government that entitled former chief ministers to government bungalows for life. Following this, the Akhilesh Yadav government had amended the law.

At present, the chief ministers who have possession of official bungalows are Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh, and ND Tiwari of the Congress party.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 07, 2018 11:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).