Ahmedabad: A railway quarters in Mumbai turned out to be an unusually expensive roof over the head for a Western Railway employee, who overstayed by nearly 20 months after his allotment was cancelled. The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Ahmedabad Bench, has upheld Western Railway’s (WR) decision to slap him with Rs 26.7 lakh in penal rent for the unauthorised occupation.
Mahendra Kashyap was allotted a quarters in a railway colony in Bandra East in 2012. However, Western Railway cancelled the allotment in Oct 2023 after vigilance complaints about illegal subletting and misuse of the accommodation surfaced. The WR initiated eviction proceedings under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971, issuing a show-cause notice on Nov 22, 2023. An eviction order followed on Dec 16, 2024. The quarters was finally vacated only on July 7, 2025. The WR treated the period from Nov 4, 2023, to July 7, 2025, as unauthorised occupation and calculated penal rent accordingly. It also began recovering the amount from Kashyap’s salary at Rs 25,000 a month.
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Health issues and his son’s education could not provide a legal shield for the prolonged stay, it said, finding no grounds to interfere with the orders. Kashyap was directed to vacate the premises immediately, but the instruction failed to translate into an immediate checkout. Kashyap then challenged the hefty penal rent before CAT’s Ahmedabad Bench. The tribunal dismissed his application, holding that once the allotment was cancelled, he had no legal right to continue occupying the premises. The tribunal, however, left a small window open for correction, stating: “It is made clear that if there is any clerical error in the period-wise calculation of penal rent, the respondents shall, upon a specific representation by the applicant, verify the same and make necessary correction, if warranted, strictly in accordance with the applicable rules. Download the TOI App.
Meanwhile, Kashyap was transferred from Mumbai to Nandurbar, then Vadodara and eventually to Ahmedabad division. His challenge to the transfer before CAT’s Mumbai Bench failed, as did his request to retain the Mumbai quarter on the grounds of his poor health and his son’s education in the city.