House Rent Allowance is part of wages and no deduction can be made on account of refusal to accept accommodation.

(Writ Petition No.38937 of 2005 filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for issuance of a writ of certiorari, calling for the records of the Central Administrative Tribunal culminating with its order dated 8.3.2005 passed in O.A.NO.962 of 2004 and quash the same.)

Common Order:

(The Order of the Court was made by R.Sudhakar,J.)

Even though the matters are listed for hearing miscellaneous petitions, on consent of the learned counsel appearing for both sides, the writ petitions themselves are heard on merits.

2. The present batch of writ petitions have been filed by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (in short, 'KVS').

3. The petitioner-KVS is an autonomous body registered under the Societies Registration Act and financed by the Government of India through Ministry of Human Resource Development. The staff of Kendriya Vidyalaya are governed by the Rules framed by the Board of Governors in terms of the policies laid down by the Government of India. In 1986, sanction was accorded for construction of staff quarters for teaching staff of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Meenambakkam in Tamil Nadu within the premises of the Vidyalaya. The construction of the building was completed in September 1992 at a cost of Rs.33.65 lakhs. In all, 21 quarters were constructed and classified as Type-I (A), Type-II (B), Type-III (C) and Type-IV(D). In terms of Rule 8 of the KVS (Allotment of Residence) Rules, 1998 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules'), the abovesaid quarters are allotted to the teachers as per the emoluments received by them. It appears that in January, 1995, due to acute water shortage, all the quarters were vacated by the occupants and thereby heavy monetary loss was caused to the KVS and pursuant to audit objection, the KVS (Allotment of Residence) Rules, 1998 came into force. All the staff were briefed about the audit objection and the willingness of the staff was called for to accept the allotment. Since none of the staff members, the contesting respondents in all these writ petitions offered to take up the staff quarters, several circulars were issued to the staff members, in particular, a circular dated 19.1.2004 was issued to the staff to apply for accommodation of Type-B quarters. Subsequently, a priority list dated 1.1.2004 for allotment – categorywise for Type 'B' and Type 'C' quarters, was circulated on 20.2.2004. The above circulars were issued under the Rules. Inspite of such circular, since no staff member came forward to occupy the premises, the petitioner-KVS was left with no other option except to allot the quarters as per the priority list. However, in view of the refusal of the staff to occupy the quarters allotted to the contesting respondents, the House Rent Allowance (in short, 'HRA') for the period from the date of allotment to the date when the last unit was occupied, was disallowed. This was done based on Rule 11 of the Rules. The allotment of the quarters was done in terms of Rule 10 of the Rules by the Allotment Committee. There was no compulsion by the KVS authorities whatsoever. Since the staff members did not co-operate with the KVS, the KVS had to invoke Rule 8 read with Rule 6 and Rule 3(9) of the Rules for allotment of quarters. This was done by the Executive Committee which is a sub-committee of the Vidyalaya Management Committee. The contesting respondents, namely the staff members, aggrieved by the deduction of HRA, filed Original Applications before the Central Administrative Tribunal.

4. The claim of the staff members is that they individually own houses and reside within 20 kms. from the school. They are not eligible to get accommodation by allotment of quarters as they have their own house. The KVS without following the Rules, had allotted the quarters to the staff members and they have objected to the allotment on the ground that they are not entitled to such allotment under the Rules and therefore, requested for cancellation of the allotment of quarters. It was contended by the