New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha moves Delhi High Court challenging the trial court order which had made way for Chadha to be dispossessed from the government bungalow he was occupying.
The matter was mentioned before a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula. which allowed the listing for tomorrow.
The trial court had held that Chadha has no vested right to continue to occupy the government bungalow after its allotment has been canceled and the privilege given to him has been withdrawn.
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to the plaintiff, and he does not have an inherent right to maintain occupancy even after the allocation has been rescinded," the court said.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.