ORDER

1. This appeal has been preferred by the appellants against the judgment and order dated 14.3.1997 passed by the Division Bench of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court by which Letters Patent Appeal (OWP) No.50 of 1997 against the judgment and order of the learned Single Judge dated 24.1.1997 passed in OWP Nos.139, 339 and 621 of 1995 has been dismissed.

2. The facts and circumstances giving rise to this case are that the appellants are Kashmiri Pandits and had been in employment of the State Government. They had been allotted residential accommodation at Jammu in 1989-90 being the Government servants.

3. The houses of the appellants were either destroyed or burnt down by the militants in the valley. The appellants were permitted to retain their respective accommodation at Jammu for safety reasons though they had retired and had no right to continue in possession of their respective accommodation and the accommodation could have been allotted to other government employees who were waiting in the queue. However, such a step was considered necessary by the State Government as the atmosphere was not congenial for the appellants to move in the valley. More so, they had lost their respective houses.

4. The Government employees, who were waiting for allotment of residential accommodation but could not get the same because the appellants were occupying the government houses, filed writ petition nos.139, 339 and 621 of 1995 before the High Court complaining that they were not provided with the government accommodation by the State Government. None of the appellants herein had been impleaded in either of those writ petitions nor any pleadings had been taken against them. The claim of the writ petitioners had been that the Government was duty-bound to provide for residential accommodation which was not being done. Therefore, the High Court was requested to issue appropriate direction for providing them the government accommodation. The learned Single Judge vide judgment and order dated 24.1.1997 allowed the writ petition and issued the following directions:-

“1. That all those persons who have ceased to be Government servants, for any reasons, shall be evicted from the houses allotted to them as Government servants immediately, this direction shall not, however, apply to persons whose eviction has been stayed by High Court in any proceedings.

2. Persons who are not in Government service but require Government accommodation, because of security reasons, should be tried to be accommodated within one complex so that their security is ensured and State has to incur lesser amount for their security.

3. No person who is not a Government servant, but is provided the Government accommodation for security reasons, shall be given more than one Unit of accommodation in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Persons who are at present having Government houses both at Jammu and Srinagar be asked for a choice and evicted from the other house. This shall also be done within one month.

4. The houses and the accommodation Units available with the State Government shall be classified by a Committee to be appointed by the Chief Secretary of the State within six months and the entitlement of a particular officer to a particular type of accommodation shall be determined by that classification. A separate queue shall be maintained for separate type of accommodation in which applications shall be considered for the type of accommodation to which the applicant will be entitled on the basis of his status and grade, which may be classified by the Committee.

5. A Government Officer who has his own house at the place where he is stationed, shall not be entitled to Government accommodation.”

5. In view of the fact that the present appellants, who were occupying the said Government accommodation, were directed to be evicted from the houses allotted to them and no other accommodation was available, they preferred the Letters Patent Appeal (OWP No.50/1997) which stood dismissed v