House rent allowance deduction
Udayan Sarmah
(Querist) 06 July 2018
This query is : Resolved
I work in Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat which is a Research Institute of Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education, Dehradun under Ministry of Environment of Forests & Climate Change, Govt. of India. The employees of the council are facing a problem relating to deduction of House Rent Allowance from monthly salary. Many employees don't live in the Govt. Accommodation provided by the office. In Rain Forest Research Institute, there are Govt. Accommodations are available but the required basic facilities are not available. Nearby ATM, Bank, Hospital, Post Office are not available in the Rain Forest Research Institute campus. Also there is no good facility of Shopping Market. The campus security service is not up to the mark. The office has been using Home Guards from Assam Police Service but some of them are very old aged. The Home Guards are deployed without any arms and cannot fight back in case of emergency. Also if any employee feels weak, then he has to travel almost 20 Kms to visit hospital. Also the campus area is not same for the paddlers as sometimes tigers roam around the campus. There is no reputed school and marketplace are available nearby the office campus. But the problem is that, the Director of Rain Forest Research Institute have suggested for deduction of House Rent Allowance from the employees if they are not availing Govt. Accommodation. Forcefully the authority has decided to allot accommodation to the employees and if employee refused to avail the accommodation, then the authority has decided to deduct the House Rent Allowance from the salary of the employees. Please let me know is it possible to deduct House Rent Allowance from any Govt. employee if he/she refuses to avail Govt. Accommodation? If accommodation is allotted, then what basic facilities are to be provided? As I have enquired, found that it is not possible to deduct House Rent Allowance from employee if he/she refuses to avail govt. accommodation (as per Central Administrative Tribunal verdict. The link of the verdict is attached) Link: https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/can-t-deduct-rent-of-staff-who-refuses-govt-accommodation/story-0bsPX7GJY9XtVsVNZZN46O.H T M L. Please suggest me as soon as possible.
Sudhir Kumar, Advocate
(Expert) 07 July 2018
Normally HRA can be deducted for all employee who do not avail accommodation and accommodation is emply.
In your case you have narrated peculiar circumstances :-
the accommodation is not safe
accommodation is 20 Km away from hospital
the passage through forest with tigers roaming.
no schools/market nearby.
in this circumstanes you can say it amounts to providing no accommodation.
but court will have to see other side of the story what administration have to say.
anyway in the meanwhile you people can make representation and even submit representation on PMO website.
P. Venu 
(Expert) 07 July 2018
There have been decision to the contrary as well. For instance see https://indiankanoon.org/doc/64300501/. The settled position is that unless an employee furnishes a no accommodation certificate as is required under paragraph 4 and 8 of the memorandum dated 27.11.1965, they are not entitled for the HRA.
There could be general or specific exemptions based on facts and circumstances. However, the inconveniences cited by you are too subjective and some cases, exaggerated.
Any how, you may make individual representations and may subsequently approach the CAT, if so advised.
