Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill, 2019
Both the houses of Parliament have passed the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill, 2019. The bill aims for speedy eviction of unauthorised occupants from government residential accommodations by building a deterrence effect.
Why there was a need to bring the amendment bill?
The Public Premises (Eviction Of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971empowers the government of India to evict unauthorized occupants from Government accommodations. But the eviction proceedings take an unusually long time, thereby reducing the availability of Government accommodations to new incumbents.
Under the existing PPE Act,1971 which was further amended in 2015, the eviction proceeding take around 5 to 7 weeks’ time. Further, it takes much longer, even years, to evict unauthorized occupants.
Features of the Bill
- To prevent undue delays the proposed Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill, 2019 does not require the state officer to follow elaborate proceedings like serving notice, show cause, inquiry. Rather the officer can initiate summary eviction proceedings.
- The proposed amendments empower the Estate officer to levy damage charges for accommodation held during the period of litigation.
There are over 3,000 unauthorised occupants in government accommodations. All the members who have lost in the previous Lok Sabha elections were supposed to vacate the homes by June 23, but even after more than two months, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is still issuing routine notices.
This bill would aid in tackling such unauthorized occupations by enabling speedy eviction of unauthorised occupants from Government residences and increase the availability of residential accommodations for eligible persons.
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Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill, 2019
To remove illegal squatters and occupants from government properties and the land, the Indian Government has decided to bring the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants), Amendment Bill, 2019 to provide more power to the evicting officials.
?What happens?
- The Government has a lot of land and property in prime locations, all of which can not be looked after continuously by the government.
- The government also provides housing support to the various elected members and government servants.
- At times, influential members of the society and politicians refuse to vacate government allocated houses even after their allocation is withdrawn.
- They also resort to delaying tactics by filing appeals before the government-appointed appeallate officers or in the courts.
- This forces the evicting forces to resort to several methods like sending notices, cutting off electricity and water supply and using force to evict the illegal occupants.
Drawbacks of the original bill
- The provisions of the original bill made it difficult for the estate officers to remove or evict illegal occupants even after the end of their tenure or their retirement from the service.
- The eviction laws were cumbersome and had several time-consuming provisions.
- It had multiple layers of the eviction process which involved the service of a show-cause notice and allowed appeals at several levels which increased the duration of carrying out an eviction order.
- Of the total 15,416 residential accommodation which the government has, over 3081 were under litigation.
What the bill proposes?
In the new bill, the government has allowed the extension of summary eviction procedures on the residential properties.
The bill has also made provisions under which if any illegal occupant challenges the estate officer?s eviction order or appeals against it, the occupant will be liable to pay damages to the government monthly.
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