The court rejected Chadha’s submission that government housing assigned to a MP cannot not be revoked under any circumstances throughout the MP’s entire term.
A Delhi court on Friday allowed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to go ahead and evict Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha from his Type VII bungalow, saying he can’t claim any vested right to the government accomodation to which he was not even entitled to, being a first-time member of the Upper House.
Additional District Judge (ADJ) Sudhanshu Kaushik of Patiala House Court, New Delhi, revoked an earlier interim order passed on April 18, 2023, which had previously instructed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat not to evict Chadha from his residence without following the appropriate legal procedures.
The court allowed a review application by the RS Secretariat.
“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to the plaintiff, and he does not have an inherent right to maintain occupancy even after the allocation has been rescinded,” the court observed.
The lawyer for 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.
The RS Secretariat contended 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 cannot 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 6, 2022 under the Type VI category.