Point of Law: Article 19 (1) (e), which is the sole ground of challenge to the conditions contained under the Scheme Guidelines and the Brochure, guarantees to every citizen the right to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India. In terms of Article 19 (5), the right under Article 19 (1) (e) is subject to reasonable restrictions which may be imposed in the interests of general public

JUDGMENT :

Yogendra Kumar Srivastava, J.

1. Heard Sri Siddharth Singhal, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri S.C.Dwivedi, learned counsel for the respondent no. 3, learned Standing Counsel for the respondent nos. 2 and 4 and Sri Arvind Kumar Goswami, learned counsel for the respondent no. 1/Union of India.

2. The present writ petition seeks to raise a challenge to certain conditions contained under the Scheme Guidelines of March, 2016 notified by the respondent no. 1 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Housing for All (Urban) and also under the Brochure issued by the respondent no. 3 in respect of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

3. Challenge in particular is to Clause 1.4 of the Scheme Guidelines, 2016 under which the States/Union Territories have been given discretion to decide a cutoff date on which the beneficiaries need to be resident of that urban area for being eligible to take benefits under the scheme and Clause 3.1 of the Brochure issued by the respondent no. 3 which provides that the applicant is to be a citizen of India and a resident of district Ghaziabad. A further prayer has been made to command the respondent nos. 3 and 4 to consider and process the application of the petitioner for allotment of an EWS House.

4. Counsel for the petitioner contends that the aforementioned conditions as contained under Clause 3.1 of the Brochure as also Clause 1.4 of the Scheme Guidelines are violative of the fundamental right of the petitioner under Article 19 (1) (e) of the Constitution of India which guarantees to all citizens the right to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India. He submits that the restrictions are not in the interest of the general public and are wholly unreasonable and are therefore legally unsustainable. He further submits that the petitioner being a resident of district Hapur and also belonging to the EWS category, cannot be excluded from the purview of the scheme.

5. The petitioner has placed reliance upon the judgment in the case of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Vs. Nawab Khan Gulab Khan and others, (1997) 11 SCC 121 to support his contentions.

6. Learned counsel appearing for the respondents have strongly refuted the contentions sought to be raised on behalf of the petitioner by pointing out that the 'Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna' is a scheme providing for housing for all and aimed at addressing the housing requirements of urban poor. It has been pointed out that the implementation of the scheme is to be made in respect of the urban areas and the conditions contained under the Scheme Guidelines are for the purpose of identifying the beneficiaries in specified urban areas for the purpose of grant of the benefit and therefore the conditions are in the interest of the general public and cannot in any manner be said to contain restrictions which may be held to be unreasonable. It is submitted that the grounds sought to be raised by the petitioner are legally untenable and the writ petition is liable to be dismissed.

7. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.

8. In order to appreciate the rival contentions, the conditions contained under the Scheme Guidelines of the respondent no. 1 and the Brochure issued by the respondent no. 3 may be looked into.

9. The Scheme Guidelines of March, 2016, which is on record, indicates that 'Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Housing for All (Urban)' was launched as a mission by the Central Government to address the housing requirements of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals :

“(i) Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource

(ii) Promotion of Affordable Housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy

(iii) Affordable Housing in Partnership with Public & Private sectors

(iv) Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancement.”

10. For the purpose of the scheme, the term 'beneficiary' has been defined as follows :

“Beneficiary : A ben