The Delhi High Court will on December 19 hear AAP MP Raghav Chadha’s plea seeking to restrain authorities from taking any action over the cancellation his official bungalow’s allotment.
A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Dharmesh Sharma, which heard the matter on Wednesday, allowed Chadha’s counsel to file an amendment in the prayers clause of the petition challenging a trial court’s recent order vacating the stay on his eviction from the bungalow.
The high court listed the matter on December 19.
After Chadha’s counsel urged the bench to grant an interim stay on the eviction, the court asked how could such a relief be granted in the absence of a challenge to the trial court’s order.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Chadha, urged the court to hear the matter on December 19 while assuring the amendment to the prayer clause would be filed.
Chadha has sought reading down of Rule 212(U) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) in an appropriate manner.
Rajya Sabha secretariat had issued the letter cancelling the allotment of the bungalow to the MP on March 3, 2023, but the high court subsequently granted him relief by reviving a trial court’s stay on his eviction.
The high court’s order came on Chadha’s plea challenging the trial court’s 2023 order vacating its own order on a review plea filed by the RS secretariat.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the bench questioned the “great hurry” to vacate the interim order.
“The point is when a suit is filed or instituted in respect of a threat of eviction, there is an injunction which is granted. There is an interim protection which operates. What is the great hurry to vacate it?” it asked.
The bench further questioned the Rajya Sabha secretariat’s counsel about the imperative to vacate the injunction order.
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“…one of the reliefs claimed is, with respect to a threat of eviction, what was the imperative to vacate the injunction which was operating? He is not against the order,” it said.
The high court, in its 2023 order, asked Chadha to present the plaint before the trial court again and directed it to proceed with the matter by first deciding the interim relief application, which stood restored before it.
On November 26, the trial court dismissed the AAP leader’s interim injunction application in his civil suit and said there was no legal justification for him to retain the accommodation.
Chadha was allotted a “type 6” bungalow at Pandara Park in July, 2022, but he made a representation to the Rajya Sabha chairman on August 29, 2022, requesting for a “type 7” accommodation. He was then allotted another bungalow at Pandara Road from the Rajya Sabha pool.
However, in March 2023, the allotment was cancelled.
As a first-time MP, Chadha is entitled to a “type-5” accommodation in the normal course, according to the Rajya Sabha members handbook released in April, 2022.
The handbook says MPs who are former union cabinet ministers, former governors or former chief ministers, and former Lok Sabha speakers, are entitled to type-7 bungalows, the second largest category available to Rajya Sabha members.
