Former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers can't stay in official bungalows: SC

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati are among former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh who are set to lose their official bungalows in Lucknow with the Supreme Court on Monday cancelling a law passed by the state government to provide permanent accommodation to former chief ministers.

In its order, the court said former chief ministers of the state are not entitled to government bungalows. The law, passed by the state government, entitled five ex-chief ministers - Rajnath Singh, Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and ND Tiwari - to government bungalows.

While striking down the Uttar Pradesh government's law granting permanent residential accommodation to former chief ministers, the Supreme Court said, Section 4(3) of UP Ministers (salaries, allowances & miscellaneous provisions) Act, 2016 is unconstitutional.

In 2016, the top court had ordered the former chief ministers to handover the bungalows and had also asked the state government to charge them rent for the period during which they were "unauthorised" to live in them.

It had also said that the local laws gave these benefits to former chief ministers "without any element of reasonableness".

The Uttra Pradesh government passed laws to not follow the court order and enable the former chief ministers to stay on.