he Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the writ petitions of Congress MPs Ambika Soni and Kumari Selja that challenged their eviction from type-VIII bungalows in Lutyens’ Delhi, while holding that they were not entitled to stay there as per the Rajya Sabha Secretariat norms. The Court also imposed a fine of Rs.25,000 each on both of them and asked them to pay the Directorate of Estate (DoE) within three months.
Both the Congress leaders, who are now Rajya Sabha members, were allotted these bungalows when they were ministers in the previous UPA government. After the Union Government served eviction notices on them and asked them to shift to type-VII accommodation in June, they moved the High Court and obtained stay orders. Ms. Soni and Ms. Selja, staying at 22, Akbar Road, and 7, Motilal Nehru Marg respectively, accused the BJP-led NDA government of having “mala fide intentions” against the members of Opposition in asking them to vacate the houses.
They also said that as per the allotment letters issued to them, they could hold the accommodation for a month after their term as MP expired or after retirement.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw of the High Court, rejecting their arguments, said in his 26-page judgment that he was sad to notice the petitioners’ contention of not being bound by the Handbook for Members of Rajya Sabha. “It does not behove the representatives of people to say that though others are bound by the laws, rules and regulations framed by them, they themselves are not.”
The Court noted that the petitioners, merely for the sake of retaining houses to which were not entitled, had attempted to give political overtones to the matter. The inference was that the petitioners, knowing that in the event of their political party not coming in power they would not be able to stake their claim, chose to get the houses “wrongfully allotted to themselves” from the DoE of the Ministry of Urban Development just before the 2014 general elections, it said.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s rulings, the Court said the apex court in one of its judgments had reminded people’s representatives who continue to occupy residential accommodations in an unauthorised manner that their overstaying directly infringed on the rights of others.
Not being able to find the DoE’s action of sending eviction notices wrongful, the Court observed that it had stood established that Ms. Soni and Ms. Selja, in their capacity as former Union Ministers and now Rajya Sabha Members, were entitled to type-VII accommodation and not type-VIII.
The Court said the citizens choose a Member of Parliament to represent them in the making of laws and for ensuring that the government was run in accordance with the laws, rules and procedures framed. It reminded the two leaders that they should not assert claims beyond their entitlement under the rules.
It does not behove the representatives of people to say that though others are bound by the laws, rules and regulations framed by them, they themselves are not
