ISLAMABAD-The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday maintained its stay order in a petition of 33 judges from lower judiciary of Islamabad, challenging a notification for withdrawing allotment of government accommodations to them.

A single bench of the Islamabad High Court comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani heard the petition and deferred the hearing till March 21 by maintaining a stay order in this matter.

The petitioners approached the court through Babar Saeed Advocate and cited the federation through secretary housing and works, Miraj Khan, section officer (policy), Ministry of Housing and Estate Office, as respondents.

Later, employees of the Ministry of CADD and PIMS also approached the court challenging similar notification of the Ministry of Housing and Works.

In their petition, they stated that the petitioners are judicial officers at Islamabad and are eligible and entitled for allotment of government accommodations.

The petitioners added that they were allotted government accommodations as per their entitlement and possession of the said accommodations were handed over to them and house rent allowance was also being deducted from their monthly salary.

They adopted that the petitioners are legal and lawful allottees of the accommodations.

But, they told the court that on March 28, the respondents without any reason or justification issued a notification whereby eligibility of the judicial officers for allotment of government accommodation was withdrawn.

They contended that it was the basic principal that all stakeholders shall be taken in confidence, but before issuing the impugned notification, no such exercise was undertaken.

They maintained that necessary legal and procedural requirements and other conditions precedent for issuance of notification had not been met before issuance of the impugned notification, thus the same is illegal, unlawful and unjustified.

Therefore, the petitioner judges prayed to the court to accept their petition and declare the impugned notification as illegal, void ab-initio, ultra vires and issued without any lawful authority.

They further requested that the respondents might be permanently restrained from taking any action, prejudicial to the interests, rights of the petitioners, in continuation of impugned notification.

The petitioners prayed to the Islamabad High Court to set aside the notification and allow them to avail government accomodations.