Delhi HC allows Raghav Chadha to stay on in his govt bungalow

The Delhi High Court allowed AAP MP Raghav Chadha to stay on in his government bungalow, setting aside a trial court order evicting him from the accommodation in a prime location in the city allotted to him

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday allowed AAP MP Raghav Chadha to stay on in his government bungalow, setting aside a trial court order evicting him from the accommodation in a prime location in the city allotted to him.

The trial court’s decision had cleared the decks for Chadha’s eviction.

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Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani, while pronouncing the order allowing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s appeal, said the April 18 order of the trial court which had directed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat not to evict Chadha, stands revived and shall remain in force till the time the trial court decides his application for interim relief.

The detailed order is awaited.

Chadha had challenged the trial court’s October 5 order which vacated the April order. The court had said in its latest order that Chadha cannot claim an absolute right to occupy the government bungalow during his entire tenure as a Rajya Sabha member even after cancellation of allotment.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat had opposed his petition against the trial court’s decision.

Chadha’s counsel had submitted before the high court that the MP has been served with a notice and eviction proceedings are going on.

He had contended before the high court that he was a victim of “selective targeting” as he was a vocal opposition member of Parliament. Chadha said he was the only sitting lawmaker in Rajya Sabha ever to have sought to be evicted from the bungalow allotted to him.

He had said the allotment of accommodation is an exercise of guided discretion and is made after taking into account the circumstances peculiar to the MP concerned, and in exercise of this discretion, out of 245 sitting MPs in Rajya Sabha, 115 have been granted accommodation above their ‘default’ entitlement.

His counsel had told the high court that the MP has been provided Z+ security in view of threats, and a large contingent of security personnel was required to be deployed at his residence. The personnel cannot be accommodated in the bungalow earlier allotted to him at Pandara Park. The AAP government in Punjab has accorded Z+ security to Chadha, who is a Rajya Sabha member from there.

Chadha was on July 6 last year allotted a ‘Type 6’ bungalow at Pandara Park but he made a representation to the Rajya Sabha chairman on August 29 requesting for a ‘Type 7’ accommodation. He was then allotted another bungalow on Pandara Road from the Rajya Sabha pool.

However, in March this year, 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.