New Delhi:

AAP MP Raghav Chadha will not have to vacate his government bungalow after the Delhi High Court set aside a trial court order today.

Mr Chadha had appealed a trial court order that lifted an interim order preventing the Rajya Sabha secretariat from removing him from the government bungalow allotted to him.

In a post on X, the Aam Aadmi Party MP said, “This fight isn’t about a house or a shop, it’s about saving the Constitution.”

“The cancellation of this allotment was a clear case of political vendetta, aimed at silencing a young, vocal parliamentarian… Opposition voices, those who represent the concerns of millions of Indians, are being deliberately targeted,” Mr Chadha said in the post on X.

He said he has given two speeches in parliament criticising the BJP-led centre, and his official accommodation was cancelled after his first speech.

“After my second speech, my membership as a parliamentarian was suspended. No parliamentarian can function if he is made to worry about what his forthright and honest speech will cost him next,” Mr Chadha said in the statement he posted on X.

Ye makan ya dukan ki nahin, Samvidhan ko bachane ki ladhayi hai
In the end, truth and justice have prevailed

My statement on the Hon’ble Delhi High Court’s ruling to set aside the unjust order to evict me from my official residence. pic.twitter.com/fA7BJ2zLYm

— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) October 17, 2023

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani has revived an April 18 order of the trial court, which had directed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat not to evict Mr Chadha.

The trial court had ruled that Mr Chadha does not have an absolute right to continue to occupy his government bungalow during his entire tenure as a Rajya Sabha MP, even after the cancellation of the allotment.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Mr Chadha’s case, challenging his suspension from the Rajya Sabha. Mr Chadha was suspended for allegedly forging signatures of other MPs and proposing their names for a committee without their consent.

The court has instructed the Rajya Sabha secretariat to address the accusations and has also requested the assistance of the Attorney General of India R Venkataramani. The case will be resumed on October 30.

Mr Chadha was suspended from the Rajya Sabha in August after four MPs accused him of including their names in a committee without their consent. 
 

New Delhi:

In a setback for AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, a Delhi court has ruled that he has no right to continue to occupy the government bungalow given to him after the allotment was cancelled. The court has lifted the interim stay granted to Mr Chadha, which means that the Rajya Sabha Secretariat can ask him to vacate the bungalow anytime. 

In a statement released after the court order, the AAP leader termed the cancellation of the allotment arbitrary and unprecedented, and alleged that it was done at the “dictates of the BJP to further their political motives and vested interest”.

Mr Chadha was given a Type 6 bungalow in July last year and had requested the Rajya Sabha Chairman for a bigger, Type 7 accommodation, which was allotted to him in September that year. In March, however, the secretariat had cancelled the allotment, arguing that the first-time MP was not entitled to a bungalow of that grade.

The AAP MP was asked to vacate the bungalow, which is in central Delhi’s Pandara Road, and had moved Delhi’s Patiala House court against the order. The court had granted an interim stay on April 18. 

Lifting the stay on Friday, the Patiala House court said Mr Chadha could not claim an absolute right to occupy the bungalow.

“Plaintiff cannot claim that he has an absolute right to continue to occupy the accommodation during his entire tenure as a Member of Rajya Sabha. The allotment of Government accommodation is only a privilege given to the plaintiff and he has no vested right to continue to occupy the same even after the cancellation of allotment,” the court said in its order. 

The judge remarked that the argument that the allotment, once made, cannot be cancelled under any circumstances during the MP’s entire tenure “deserves rejection”. The court also pointed out that, as a Member of Parliament, Mr Chadha has no vested right in the accommodation and his status was similar to that of a licensee.

‘Above His Grade’

In June, the Rajya Sabha housing committee had said that the Type 7 bungalow was above Mr Chadha’s grade as a first-time MP and that such accommodations are usually assigned to former Union Ministers, former governors or former chief ministers. 

The head of the committee had also pointed out that BJP MP Radha Mohan Das had been moved from a Type 7 to a Type 5 bungalow as well.