Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh high court has directed the state to furnish details of govt houses allotted to journalists, observing that many such accommodations are being occupied at the expense of other govt officials.A division bench headed by chief justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia has asked the state govt to place the information on record by Oct 28, including the number of govt houses occupied by journalists, the provisions under which the allotments were made, dates of allotment and the category of houses allotted.The court also questioned the delay in filing an affidavit by the chief secretary regarding special benefits extended to six former chief parliamentary secretaries (CPSes) whose appointments had already been set aside.On Nov 13, 2024, the high court quashed the appointment of six CPSes appointed by the Congress govt in Jan 2023. These included MLAs Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru), Ashish Butail (Palampur), Ram Kumar Chaudhary (Doon), Kishori Lal (Baijnath), Sanjay Awasthi (Arki) and Sunder Singh Thakur (Kullu).The court expressed concern over the state’s failure to file an affidavit despite its earlier order dated Aug 5, concerning the continued benefits of govt accommodation being extended to these former CPSes. The court had then directed the chief secretary to disclose in how many cases similar special permission had been granted to other govt employees and explain how the former CPSs were being extended special benefits without even making an application.The bench had also questioned earlier whether such action amounted to an arbitrary exercise of power, particularly when the appointments of the CPSes had already been set aside. It had directed the state to disclose the penal rent payable by the former CPSes and had put the govt on notice as to why the decision should not be stayed.The court has noted that despite the matter coming up on three subsequent hearings, the chief secretary had failed to file the required affidavit.Earlier, the bench had observed that following its proceedings on Dec 29, 2025, various steps were taken by the competent authority to regularise the occupation of govt residences by the erstwhile CPSes. The court had noted that the file was subsequently placed before the chief minister for consideration by the cabinet. On May 4, permission was apparently granted to regularise the occupation retrospectively from Nov 14, 2024, on payment of normal licence fee. The bench observed that the exercise appeared to have been undertaken during pendency of the case and under Rule 24 of the Himachal Pradesh Allotment of Government Residences (General Pool) Rules, 1994, relaxing relevant provisions without applications from the concerned persons.
