JUDGMENT :

Sindhu Sharma, J.

The petitioners are retired employees of State Bank of India. petitioner No. 1 has retired as Chief Manager on 31.05.2016, whereas petitioner No. 2 as Manager on 30.04.2018 and petitioner No. 3 as Deputy Manager on 30.09.2016. As employees of the Bank, while they were in service, the petitioners were allotted residential accommodation by the Bank. Petitioner No. 1 was allotted Flat No. 16, petitioner Nos. 2 and 3 were allotted flat Nos. 13 and 7 respectively in the SBI Officers’ Flats, Rajinder Nagar, Phase-I Jammu at a nominal monthly rent of Rs. 157/- and Rs. 113/- per month respectively.

2. The grievance of the petitioners is that the respondent Nos. 2 to 6 in order to oust them have illegally started charging rent at commercial rate from their pension accounts on account of retention of flats by them.

3. The contention of the petitioners is that they are migrants and have suffered the calamity which struck in 1990, due to which the minority community of the Kashmiri Pandit migrated from the Kashmir Valley to Jammu and various other States. A large number of people from the minority community including State and Central Government Employees migrated from Kashmir Valley to Jammu. Petitioners have also migrated to Jammu due to disturbances in the valley and were registered as migrants and were also issued migrant ration cards by the State Government. The State as well the Central Government have allotted residential accommodation to those migrant employees, who were forced to leave Kashmir Valley by abandoning their moveable and immoveable property.

4. It is submitted by the petitioners that the State Government in the year 1995 contemplated a move to oust the migrant Government Employees both in-service as well as retired, occupying government residential accommodation. This compelled the migrant employees both retired as well as in-service to invoke the extra-ordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court by filing writ petition titled J. L. Koul and others v/s State of J&K and others. This petition was dismissed and against the order of dismissal, an LPA (OWP) No. 50/1997 titled J. L. Koul and others v/s State of J&K and others was preferred and this LPA was also dismissed.

5. This judgment of the appellate court was assailed before the Supreme Court of India in Civil Appeal No. 3809/2005 titled J L. Koul and others V. State of J&K and others’. The Supreme Court of India decided this appeal by directing respondents to frame rehabilitation scheme for Kashmiri Pandits within a period of six months and place the same on record. This appeal was disposed of on 27.10.2009 by holding that:

“8. The aforesaid affidavit makes it clear that the State Authorities have framed the rehabilitation scheme and for implementation of the same, it got the resources also. In such a fact situation no further action/direction is required.

9. In view of the above affidavit/undertaking given by the State and after hearing Mrs. Purnima Bhat Kak, Ld. Counsel for the appellants and Mr. Anis Suhrawardy, Ld. Counsel for the State, we dispose of the appeal with a pious hope that State shall take all endeavors to rehabilitate the person who have been victim of terrorism and till the State is able to rehabilitate and provide the appropriate accommodation to 31 appellants-retirees/oustees, they shall continue to possess the accommodations which are in their respective possession on this date.”

6. The contention of the petitioners is that they are similarly situated as the petitioners in the aforesaid petition and the observations/findings of the Hon’ble Apex Court in the J. K. Koul’s appeal apply to them also. They are migrants from Kashmir and, thus, fully entitled to reside in the residential accommodations provided to them by the respondents. The charging of commercial rate of rent from the petitioners by the Bank which was forcibly debited amount of rent at commercial rate from the accounts of the petitioners, the same is bad, arbit