CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has quashed the second inquiry report that had declared several beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) ineligible, terming the exercise as “contrary to the relevant guidelines” and “unsustainable in the eye of law”.
The single judge bench of Justice Sashikanta Mishra passed the judgment on Friday while considering petitions filed by 10 residents of Gopinathpur gram panchayat in Bhadrak district that challenged the government’s decision to withhold the PMAY-G benefits.
Initially, a block-level inquiry had found 258 eligible beneficiaries, including the petitioners, after their names were approved by the Gram Sabha on January 30, 2023.
Work orders were issued on June 19, 2023 and some petitioners received the first instalment of Rs 40,000. However, they were declared ineligible and order for refund of the released funds was issued to them after authorities conducted a second inquiry following a complaint by one Malatilata Sahoo on June 27, 2023, alleging inclusion of ineligible beneficiaries.
The petitioners sought quashing of the second inquiry report, refund orders, and directions for release of their pending PMAY-G instalments.
In the October 24 order, Justice Mishra observed that the complaint which triggered the second inquiry was “vague and inconclusive” and had been filed “long after the period granted for submission of complaints”, which was from January 16 to January 24, 2023.
“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 court stated. Holding the second inquiry report dated July 7, 2023, invalid, the court ruled: “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.”
Directing authorities to act upon the Gram Sabha resolution dated January 30, 2023, Justice Mishra ordered the admissible benefits under the PMAY-G scheme be released to the petitioners “without any further delay” and that the exercise be completed within six weeks.
“Assuming for a moment that the complaint was correct, it implicitly means that the field inquiry 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,” the order said.
The court found that the second inquiry, conducted on the directions of the block development officer (BDO), was “an ex-parte one without involving the petitioners and other beneficiaries”.
