CUTTACK: Orissa high court has quashed a govt inquiry report that had declared several beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana–Gramin (PMAY-G) ineligible. The court held that the inquiry was conducted in violation of established guidelines and could not stand ‘in the eye of law’.
As many as 10 residents of Gopinathpur panchayat in Bhadrak district had filed petitions challenging the govt’s decision to withhold their PMAY-G benefits. Initially, a block-level identification inquiry had found 258 eligible beneficiaries, including the petitioners, whose names were approved by the gram sabha on Jan 30, 2023. Accordingly, work orders were issued on June 19, 2023, and some petitioners received the first instalment of Rs 40,000.
But a resident of Gopinathpur panchayat, Malatilata Sahoo, filed a complaint on June 27, 2023, alleging the inclusion of ineligible beneficiaries, following which, the authorities conducted a second block-level inquiry and declared the 10 petitioners ineligible and ordered the refund of the released funds. The petitioners then moved the high court, seeking quashing of the second inquiry report, refund orders and directions for release of their pending PMAY-G installments.
Delivering the judgment on Oct 24, Justice Sashikanta Mishra said the complaint that led to the second inquiry was submitted well beyond the permissible period for filing objections. “This court has perused the complaint submitted by one Malatilata Sahoo and several others. It simply says that some ineligible persons have been treated as eligible beneficiaries contrary to the guidelines. The complaint is at most vague and inconclusive,” the judge noted.
“The impugned second inquiry report dated 07.07.2023 is hereby quashed. The action taken to deprive the benefits to the petitioner-beneficiaries pursuant to such inquiry is hereby declared invalid,” Justice Mishra ruled
Accordingly, Justice Mishra directed the authorities to act upon the gram sabha’s resolution dated Jan 30, 2023, and release the admissible PMAY-G benefits to the petitioners ‘without any further delay’, completing the process within six weeks of receiving a certified copy of the order.
In the order, Justice Mishra pointed out that by the time the complaint was filed, the gram sabha had already approved the list of beneficiaries, work orders had been issued and in some cases, the first instalments were released. “Assuming for a moment that the complaint was correct, it implicitly means that the field inquiry was conducted by responsible officers of the government… was incorrect. Nothing has been placed before this court to show as to how the field inquiry was wrong or that the same was actuated with malafides (improper motive),” the judge observed.
The court further noted that the second inquiry, ordered by the block development officer, was ‘an ex-parte one without involving the petitioners and other beneficiaries’. It also remarked that the authorities themselves had undermined the report by continuing to release installments to some petitioners ‘notwithstanding the fact that the second report states them as ineligible’.
