Govt Amends Public Premises Law To Curb Overstay By Staff

In a move that would enable the government to evict unauthorised occupants from staying in government accommodations, the Union Cabinet recently approved certain amendments in the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 also known as the PPE Act of 1971. The definition of 'residential accommodation occupation' has been inserted into Section 2 of the amended law, while a new sub-section — 3B — has been added to Section 3 that talks about eviction from 'residential accommodation occupation'.

Earlier, estate officers had to follow a long procedure prescribed under Sections 4, 5 and 7 of the law to evict unauthorised occupants. Now, they will be able to initiate summary proceedings in case of an overstay by a government employee into a staff quarter that is allotted to him for a specific period and get the premises vacated faster. Estate officers will now have the power to use necessary force to take possession of premises illegally occupied.

It must be noted here that overstaying their tenure is a common practice among government staff for obvious reasons. Free accommodation is one of the biggest benefits that come along with most government jobs. Apart from the fact that government provides accommodations for free to its staff with highly subsidised amenities, these homes are generally built across prime areas of a city.

However, this also leads to others waiting for a long period before they are allotted an accommodation. Those who are working for the Central government and are eligible to get accommodation under the General Pool Residential Accommodation will be the biggest beneficiary of the amendment.

Here are four things you need to know about the law:

• What happens if an employee has been evicted for overstay and some of his belongings are still back there? The law states that the estate officer will have to give a 14 days' notice to the persons and get this notice published "in at least one newspaper having circulation in the locality" before removing the property or auctioning it.

• Section 10 of the Act says that every order made by an estate officer or appellate officer under this Act will be final and cannot be called into question in any "original suit, application or execution proceeding and no injunction shall be granted by any court or other authority in respect of any action taken or to be taken in pursuance of any power conferred by or under this Act".

• Apart from a fine, an employee can face a jail term for overstaying in a government accommodation.  Section 11 of the Act says that if a person unlawfully occupies any public premises, he shall be punishable with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both.

• In case the unauthorised occupant dies while proceedings are still on, his heirs or legal representative will face action. Section 13 (2) also says that all the dues of the deceased have to be paid by his heirs or legal representatives "but their liability shall be limited to the extent of the assets of the deceased in their hands".

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