The judge said the allotment of government accommodation is only a privilege given to the complainant and he has no vested right to continue occupying it even after the allotment is cancelled.
A Delhi court said AAP’s Raghav Chadha could not claim that he had the absolute right to continue occupying the government bungalow throughout his tenure as a Rajya Sabha member, even after the annulment of the attribution.
Additional district judge Sudhanshu Kaushik made the observation while setting aside an interim order passed on April 18 which had directed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat not to dispossess Chadha of the government bungalow.
Reacting to the order, Chadha said he would take appropriate legal action in due course.
“The trial court had initially accepted my plea and granted me interim relief. He has now fired me on a legal technicality, which I believe is legally advisable to state is based on an incorrect understanding of the law. I will take appropriate legal action in due course,” he said in a statement.
In an order issued on October 5, the judge said the argument that the accommodation granted to an MP cannot be waived in any way during the entire term of his mandate deserves to be rejected.
“We can also add that the applicant has no acquired right to the accommodation and that his status is similar to that of a permit holder, which can be revoked at any time by the competent authority. The complainant cannot claim that he has an absolute right to continue to occupy the accommodation for the entire period of his tenure as a member of the Rajya Sabha,” the judge said.
The judge said the allotment of government accommodation is only a privilege given to the complainant and he has no vested right to continue occupying it even after the allotment is cancelled.
The judge noted that interim measures had been granted to Chadha so that he would not be dispossessed of his accommodation without due legal process.
“This is certainly a prima facie error in the record and it must be corrected. Accordingly, the order dated April 18, 2023 is set aside and the interim order is set aside,” the judge said.
The judge added that Chadha had failed to demonstrate that urgent or immediate relief should be granted in this case.
The court had in April ordered the secretariat not to dispossess Chadha of the bungalow till the application was pending, without due legal process.
Chadha’s lawyer had urged the court to grant an ex parte interim injunction against the secretariat, saying it was determined to evict Chadha from the accommodation allocated to him.
He claimed that Chadha would suffer irreparable harm if the injunction was not granted.
Chadha was allotted a ‘type 6’ bungalow at Pandara Park on July 6 last year, but he made a representation to the Rajya Sabha chairman on August 29 seeking a ‘type 7’ accommodation.
He was then allotted another bungalow on Pandara Road, next to the Rajya Sabha swimming pool.
However, in March this year the award was cancelled.
Chadha sought an injunction restraining the secretariat from taking any further action following the March 3 letter and allotting the bungalow to any other person.
The AAP MP also sought Rs 5.5 lakh as damages from the secretariat for causing him mental agony and harassment.
As a first-time MP, Chadha is entitled to Type 5 accommodation under normal circumstances, according to the Rajya Sabha Members’ Handbook published in April 2022.
The manual states that MPs who are former Union Ministers, former Governors or former Chief Ministers and former Speakers of the Lok Sabha, are entitled to Type 7 bungalows, the second largest category available for Rajya Sabha MPs.
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