AGYA RAM Vs. U.T. ADMINISTRATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners seek quashing of the order dated 24th January, 2002 [Annexure P-20] whereby their claim for allotment of Booths to be reserved for the Kashmiri Migrants, has been rejected.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioners, they along with 17 other families, in total 20 families, were forced to migrate from the Kashmir Valley due to unfortunate prevailing circumstances over there. They arrived in Chandigarh and were accommodated in the Community Centres of Sectors 20, 29 and 40 of the City. The petitioners and the other migrant families were issued Identity Cards by the Chandigarh Administration in the year 1990 [Annexures P2 to P4]. It is the petitioners' case that besides shelter, the Chandigarh Administration has been providing them free ration and other benefits as per the policy decisions taken by the Central Government from time to time. They were allowed to earn their livelihood by installing Rehris in a tented accommodation in front of Kiran Cinema, Sector 22, Chandigarh.

(3.) ASSERTING themselves to be registered Kashmiri Migrants who had been permitted to sell goods in the Market of Sector 22, Chandigarh to earn their livelihood and, thus, eligible in terms of Rule 5-A, reproduced above, that the petitioners applied to the Chandigarh Administration for allotment of built-up booth sites to them. Their applications, however, having remained pending for a considerably long period, they approached this Court by way of CWP No. 7447 of 2000 which was disposed of vide order dated 4th September, 2001 by directing the Chandigarh Administration to consider the claim of the petitioners in terms of Rule 5-A of the Rules and if found eligible, to allot them the built-up booths in the market of any Sector. The Chandigarh Administration considered the petitioners' claim as directed by this Court but has turned down the same vide the impugned order dated 24th January, 2002 [Annexure P-20] for the following two reasons which find mention in the operative part of the impugned order :-