In The Matter Of Suo Moto Public Interest ... vs State Of Chhattisgarh on 11 March, 2026

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                              HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR

                                                  WPPIL No. 81 of 2025


                      IN THE MATTER OF SUO MOTO PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION versus STATE
                      OF CHHATTISGARH AND OTHERS

                                                         Order Sheet



                       11-03-2026           This is an office reference.
                                            Heard Mr. Praveen Das, learned Addl. Advocate
                                    General for the State. Also heard Mr. Pranjal Agrawal,
                                    learned counsel for respondent No.4 and Ms. A.

Sandhya Rao, learned counsel appearing on behalf of Mr. Pankaj Agrawal, learned counsel for respondent No.7.

In compliance of this Court's order dated 17-12-2025 the Managing Director, Police Housing Corporation Limited, District Raipur, Chhattisgarh has filed has filed an affidavit dated 09-03-2026, relevant

part of the affidavit is as under:-

"4. That, it is respectfully submitted that repair work has been taken up by the Corporation for the first time after the incorporation of the Respondent. Corporation. For this it is mandatory that firstly all the

police buildings were required to be taken into the books of the Respondent Corporation which was done in advance anticipating Administrative approval.

5. That, it is respectfully submitted that the proposal of total 2836.46 lakhs for maintenance of police buildings was sent for administrative approval out of which administrative approval of only Rs. 785.73 lakhs was received on 31-10-2025. Consequent to the Administrative approval, respective Executive Engineers were directed to prepare Bill of Quantity which was submitted by them between 20-11-2025 to 23-12-2025. In the meantime Police Headquarters released an amount of Rs. 785.93 lakhs on 10.12.2025 against a demand of 2836.46 lakhs. The Bill of Quantity of the repair work was checked by the technical sanction at the Headquarters and the technical sanction of project was sanctioned on 21.01.2026. Subsequently Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) was issued on 03.02.2026. Currently the tenders have been received and are being evaluated.

Because of the scarcity of funds many repair works could not be taken up. Copy of the Administrative approval is being annexed in ANNEXURE R-4/9

6. That, it is respectfully submitted that detailed project report for the maintenance of the police buildings amounting to Rs. 2216.39 lakhs has been sent in addition to the repair work mentioned in the shove mentioned paragraph.

7. That, it is respectfully submitted that process in original works is slightly different from the repair work which involves selection of Architect (Consultant), Geo technical report on bearing capacity of soil

based on standard penetration test, plate load test including Geo technical report on recommended bearing capacity, preparation of Bill of Quantities and detail structural drawings which have been vetted by National Institute of Technology after the receipt of administrative approval.

8. That, selection of consultant is done by committees as approved by Board of Directors for which separate committees have been constituted for projects upto 5 crores and projects above 5 crores. The order for constitution of committee is being cumulatively annexed in ANNEXURE-R-4/10.

9. That, as per the budgetary provision for the financial year 2024-25, the administrative sanction was accorded on 08-12-2025 & the fund of Rs. 2400 lakhs out of Rs. 12154 lakhs for the same was made available on 22-01-2026. These houses were G +2 which have been constructed in previous years. The novation agreement expanding the scope of work other conditions applying mutatis-mutandi was carried out as agreed by both parties on 16.1.2026, thereby reducing the time required and also saving money. As per the Bill of Quantities provided by the Architect the technical team of corporation checked the quantities and Administrative approval was given on 29.01.2026. The Notice Inviting Tender of 24 NGO quarters and 384 Head constable/Constable quarters was issued on 03.02.2026 which will be opened on 09.03.2026. The copy of Notice Inviting Tender is being annexed as ANNEXURE R4/11.

10. That, the administrative approval of houses for as per the budgetary provision of financial year 2025-2026

was given on 04-12-2025. Since the sanction was given in bulk numbers, 2384 Constable/Head constable quarters (@ 13.34 per unit and 500 Non Gazetted quarters (@ 14.50 per unit) and not as per unit/districts. Police Headquarters was requested on 23.04.2025 (as soon after the budgetary provisions were made) and 27.11.2025 pursuant to the present. PIL in the Hon'ble court in anticipation of the grant of the Administrative approval. Police Headquarters provided the information on 02.01.2026. This distribution included P+6 and G+1 houses along with G+2 houses. Since P+6 and G+1 houses have not been constructed in recent years, hence Request for Proposal was sought for all the empanelled Architects in the corporation on 08-12-2025 and after due diligence the committee decided the Architect on 02-01-2026. Accordingly agreement for P+6 and G+1 was executed on 07-01-2026 and novation agreement for G+2 houses was executed on 12-12- 2025. The Bill of Quantities was received in batches and final Bill of Quantity was received on 22-02-2026.

11. That. 31 number of works sanctioned in Financial year 2024-25 & 2025-26 were above 7.5 crores for which powers of technical sanction are vested with the Board of Directors of the Corporation. The meeting of Board of Directors was conducted on 16- 02-2026. The Board formed the committee and empowered it to grant technical sanction and other tender formalities. The copy of the minutes of meeting of the Board of Directors of the Corporation is being annexed in ANNEXURE R-4/12.

12. That, the above said committee granted technical

sanction on 24/25-02-2026 and consequently Notice Inviting Tender for 500 NGO quarters and 2672 Head constable/Constable quarters was issued on 05.03.2026 which will be opened on 08-04-2026. The copy of the Notice Inviting Tender is being annexed as ANNEXURE R-4/13.

13. That, it is respectfully submitted that Superintendant of Police Dantewda, Commandant 9 th Bn Dantewada and Commandant 15th Bn Bijapur have requested the Police Headquarters to replace G+2 quarters with P+6 quarters citing space constraints and have given a copy to the Managing Director of the Corporation also. Necessary instructions have been sought from the Police Headquarters regarding the same and the response is still awaited. Hence, Notice Inviting Tender has not been issued for 36 Non Gazetted Officers and 228 Constable/Head Constable houses. The copy of the letters of various unit heads and the letter of Corporation to Police Headquarters is cumulatively annexed as ANNEXURE R-4/14.

14. That, it is respectfully submitted that budgetary allocation of 500 Non Gazzetted Officers (@Rs. 14 lakhs per unit) and 2200 Constable/Head constable quarters (@Rs.12 lakhs per unit) for financial year 2026-27 has been made. As mentioned in para 8 above earlier sanction were @Rs14.5 lakhs and @ Rs.13.34 lakhs per unit for the Non Gazzetted Officers and Constable/Head Constable quarters respectively. Relevant portion of the budgetary allocation is being annexed as ANNEXURE-4/15."

Learned counsel for respondent No.4 submits that

after allocation of funds, for construction as well as maintenance certain NITs have been issued and the same are under process.

Let a fresh affidavit be filed by the Managing Director, Police Housing Corporation by the next date of hearing regarding finalization of the NITs for the said purpose.

Let the matter be again listed on 20th of April, 2026.

                      Sd/-                          Sd/-
        (Ravindra Kumar Agrawal)              (Ramesh Sinha)
                    Judge                      Chief Justice




Aadil