P&H High Court: Beant Singh Family Can Retain Government House

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently allowed family members of former Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Beant Singh, who was killed in a bomb blast, to retain a government house in Chandigarh despite holding no official position [Court on its own motion v UT Chandigarh].A Division Bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor rejected an application challenging the continued occupation of the house by Beant Singh's son Tej Parkash Singh.The Court took into account the security threats faced by Singh's family, which were flagged by the Chandigarh administration.The Court held that the Supreme Court’s directions against former public functionaries retaining government accommodation could not, by themselves, prevent the family from continuing to occupy the house in view of the administration’s assessment of the family’s security needs.Hence, the case is distinguishable from those covered by the Supreme Court's directions, the Court ruled."This being a case of its own kind, and clearly distinguishable, would not fall within clutches of the directions issued by the apex Court," the High Court said.Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit KapoorBeant Singh, a Congress leader who served as Punjab Chief Minister from 1992 until his assassination on August 31, 1995, was killed in a bomb attack outside the Punjab Secretariat in Chandigarh. The attack also killed several others. The government house was allotted to his family in the aftermath of h