ORDER

Leave granted.

We have heard learned counsel on both sides.

2. These appeals by special leave arise from the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Bhubaneswar made on 25.5.1992 in OA No. 1549/90 and batch.

3. The admitted position is that all the respondents are Government servants. They were allotted Government houses in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack during their tenure of office as Government servants. On their retirement, they did not vacate the premises, though their allotments have been cancelled. Consequently, the Government had charged them with penal rents of 5 times the standard rent prescribed under the Orissa Service Code. When they challenged the levy in the Tribunal, it held that the Government have no power to assess damages by way of penalty in excess of one time standard rent. Therefore, the order passed by the Government is not valid in law. Mr. P.N. Misra, learned counsel for the State, contends that the view taken by the Tribunal is contrary to Rule 11 of the Orissa Service Code, (for short, the Code ) which contemplates that a Government servant, after retirement, if he over-stays beyond the maximum period of four months as provided under the Rules, is requ