Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:125827 Court No. - 4 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 10542 of 2025 Petitioner :- Alok Kumar Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Lal Bahadur,Neeraj Srivastava Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J. Heard Sri Neeraj Srivastava, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as learned Standing Counsel. By means of this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, petitioner has prayed for quashing of the order dated 25.02.2025, whereby, he has been directed to deposit penal rent to the tune of Rs. 1,89,496/-. It is contended on behalf of the petitioner that petitioner though stood transferred from Bijnor to Najibabad in the year 2021 but he had to retain the official accommodation on account of a fact that there were no proper education facilities available in Najibabad which is only a Tehsil. Thus, under the compelling circumstances, he continued to retain the official accommodation as his children were studying at Bijnor. It is submitted that the petitioner's son was in High School last year and now he has passed out and his younger child is studying in Class - 4. However, he is ready to vacate the official accommodation by 31.08.2025. It is further submitted that House Rent Allowance has already been deducted and if the penal rent is charged then he will suffer huge financial loss. Per contra it is argued by learned Standing Counsel that an employee once transferred, cannot retain official accommodation under any circumstance. He has placed instructions before the Court as per which petitioner has been previously issued with notices on 25.01.2022 and 02.06.2022 but he never responded in the sense he never vacated the official accommodation and hence as per Rules the authority had to charge penal rent. Having heard learned counsel for the respective parties and having perused the records particularly the undertaking being advanced before the Court that petitioner would be vacating the official accommodation by 31.8.225, it is provided that in the event petitioner furnishes an application along with a notarized affidavit before the competent authority namely the Executive Engineer concerned within a period of two weeks, he shall be permitted to retain the official accommodation till 31.08.2025. The Court is also of the view that since the petitioner's House Rent Allowance has continuously been deducted, the ends of justice would get served if the petitioner pays only Rs. 50,000/- towards penal rent in addition to the HRA already deducted, Thus, against Rs. 1,89,496/- respondents are directed to deduct Rs. 50,000/- from the salary of the petitioner in equal four installments from 31.08.2025. It is further provided that in the event petitioner fails to furnish an affidavit as directed herein above and fails to vacate the premises on or before 31.08.2025, he shall be liable to pay entire penal rent and the respondents will also be at liberty get the House Rent Allowance and official accommodation vacated per force and shall also be at liberty to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the petitioner. Electricity and water connection of applicant shall stand restored forthwith. With these aforesaid observations and directions, this petition stands disposed of. Order Date :- 29.7.2025 IrfanUddin Digitally signed by :- IRFAN UDDIN SIDDIKI High Court of Judicature at Allahabad