Writ challenge to a show cause notice failed where no jurisdictional defect was shown and occupation right had ended after dismissal.

A writ petition to quash a show cause notice under the Tamil Nadu Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act was held ordinarily not maintainable because a notice is only the commencement of eviction proceedings and can be challenged only for want of jurisdiction or patent illegality. The court also noted that police quarters are reserved for serving personnel, so a dismissed employee had no enforceable right to remain in occupation merely because a review petition was pending. As no jurisdictional defect or manifest illegality was shown in the eviction notice, the writ challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether a writ petition could be entertained to quash a show cause notice issued under the Tamil Nadu Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1975, and whether the petitioner had any right to continue in the police quarters after dismissal from service.

Analysis: The show cause notice was only the commencement of eviction proceedings under Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1975, and the settled rule is that a writ under Article 226 of the Constitution of India ordinarily does not lie against a mere show cause notice unless it is wholly without jurisdiction or ex facie illegal. The petitioner admitted that police quarters are allotted only to serving personnel, and once dismissed from service, he had no enforceable right to remain in occupation merely because a review petition was stated to be pending. On the facts, no jurisdictional infirmity or manifest illegality was shown in the notice.

Conclusion: The writ challenge to the show cause notice was not maintainable, and the notice was rightly upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A writ petition will not ordinarily lie to quash a show cause notice, and a dismissed employee has no right to continue occupying official quarters reserved for serving personnel in the absence of a jurisdictional defect or manifest illegality in the eviction notice.

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