Delhi High Court to Hear AAP MP Raghav Chadha's Plea Against Eviction from Type VII Bungalow on October 11, 2023

AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday approached the Delhi High Court against the trial courts order allowing the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to evict him from his Type VII government bungalow here after finding that he was not entitled for it.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula directed for listing of the matter for hearing on Wednesday, October 11, 2023.

The counsel for Chadha cited urgency in the matter as he had been served with a notice and eviction proceedings were going on.

The Delhi Court had on October 5 allowed Rajya Sabha Secretariat to remove Chadha from Type VII bungalow.

The court said Chadha can't claim any vested right to the government accomodation as he was not  entitled to it being a first time member of the Upper House.

Additional District Judge (ADJ) of Patiala House Courts, New Delhi Sudhanshu Kaushik allowed review application against an earlier interim order passed on April 18, 2023.

The court had previously restrained the Rajya Sabha Secretariat from dispossessing Chadha from his residence without following the appropriate legal procedures.

"The plaintiff (Raghav Chadha) cannot assert that he possesses an absolute entitlement to occupy the accommodation throughout his entire term as a Member of the Rajya Sabha. The allocation of government housing is simply a privilege granted to the plaintiff, and he does not have an inherent right to maintain occupancy even after the allocation has been rescinded," the court said.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat argued that Chadha, being a first time member of the Rajya Sabha, is entitled to be allotted a Type VI bungalow and not Type VII.

It also submitted  that the court had earlier in its order on April 18 provided interim relief to Chadha without following the procedure outlined in Section 80(2) of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC), which requires a hearing for both parties before granting relief.

The court rejected Chadha's submission that government housing assigned to a MP could not be revoked under any circumstances throughout the MP's entire term.

Chadha was first allotted a Bungalow at Pandara Park, New Delhi on July 06, 2022 under the category of Type-VI.

On August 29, 2022, he made a representation to the Chairman, Rajya Sabha requesting for the allotment of Type-VII accommodation. The said representation of Chadha was considered and on September 08  2022, in lieu of earlier accommodation, he was allotted another Bunglow at Pandara Road, New Delhi, from Rajya Sabha Pool.

The allotment of bungalow was cancelled on March 03, 2023, upon a request to place the higher type of accommodation in General pool.