The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to regularise the allotment of government accommodation to a Kashmiri migrant, who was retired from service, observing that the government does not have “unlimited accommodation”.

Petitioner Sushil Kumar Dhar, a Kashmiri migrant who was retired on March 31 last year, had challenged an earlier court order which dismissed a batch of similar pleas filed against the eviction orders issued by the central government.

The pleas were seeking regularisation of government quarters by charging normal license fees for three years referring to the Supreme Court order dated October 7, 2021, in the Union of India vs Onkar Nath Dhar case. The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla was hearing the appeal of Dhar who had stated that the state is unable to give him proper security to re-establish his village in Kashmir.

During the course of the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel said his client feels safe in Delhi. “As a Kashmiri migrant, pandit, I’m unable to go back,” he said.

After the submissions, the court said it is not that the government authorities are discriminating against the appellant, asking what will be the plight of other people waiting in queue for government accommodation if it permits this plea. “Govt doesn’t have unlimited accommodation,” the bench said.

As per petitioner Dhar, he was transferred from Jammu and Kashmir to Delhi. He had joined in National Sample Survey Organisation in Udhampur in 1983. In the earlier verdict, the bench of Justice Kameswar Rao had noted that the petitioner was transferred to Delhi in January 1993, that is after four years from 1989, and refused his claims on security issues.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed.)