Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Wednesday submitted in the Delhi High Court that he has been a victim of “selective targeting” and being evicted from his government bungalow as he is a vocal Opposition member of Parliament.
Mr. Chadha’s counsel made the submission a day after the MP moved the High Court challenging a lower court order that lifted the stay on his eviction from the Pandara Road bungalow allotted to him.
The Rajya Sabha Secretariat in March this year had cancelled the allotment, arguing that Mr. Chadha was not entitled to a “Type-VII” bungalow.
It told the lower court that Mr. Chadha, being a first-time Rajya Sabha MP and a former Member of the State Legislature, was only entitled to a “Type-VI” bungalow.
According to the guidelines, a “Type-VII” bungalow is allotted to an MP who in the past served as a Union Cabinet Minister, Governor, Chief Minister or a Lok Sabha Speaker.
However, the lower court in an interim order on April 18 stopped the Rajya Sabha Secretariat from evicting the MP from the government bungalow. On October 5, the court cancelled the stay order, paying a way for his eviction.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Mr. Chadha, said of the 245 sitting MPs in the Rajya Sabha, 115 have been granted accommodation above their “default” entitlement.
The senior advocate argued that the MP has been given Z+ security and a large contingent of security personnel was required to be deployed at his residence.
In his plea, Mr Chadha said, “Combined with this (eviction notice), the fact that the appellant has also been suspended by the Rajya Sabha at the behest of the Treasury Benches leaves no manner of doubt that every attempt is being made to silence the appellant.”
“While this is a case about the illegality in de-housing the appellant (Mr Chadha), it is equally a case about silencing vocal parliamentarians which goes to the very root of the effective functioning of a democracy,” his plea stated.
The High Court will hear the case again on Thursday.
