The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the Union government’s response, through the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MoHUA) and the Directorate of Estates, to AAP’s plea seeking the accommodation of national broadcaster Arvind Kejriwal.
In this petition, filed by the party’s national secretary Pankaj Kumar Gupta, the AAP submitted to be recognized as a national party by the Election Commission of India on April 10, 2023. The party called the action of the respondents for denying Kejriwal his right to government. accommodation as “indiscriminate and non-discriminatory”.
One of the “great benefits” that the national party has the right to, he said, “is the provision of accommodation by the respondents – seeing the importance of that person in the functioning of the national party, the need for the provision of the organization. the same, and the great impact on the multi-party democracy in the country”.
Citing an official memorandum dated July 31, 2014 which states that “one accommodation shall be allotted/allowed to be reserved by the party president of a respected national party provided that no other accommodation is allotted to him in any other position”, the party sought the court’s direction to the petitioners regarding allotment of accommodation in advance at a national meeting “in the middle of New Delhi”.
Clarifying that AAP does not provide for the post of “party president”, the petition further states, “This, however, is only a semantic/nomenclature technicality and does not diminish the right of… (AAP) to secure tenure.” of the head of its organization, who is responsible for its effective operation.”
When the case was heard, the court of Judge Sanjeev Narula on Friday issued a notice to the defendants and sent the matter to November 26.
The party, in its petition stated that they wrote a letter on April 17, 2023 to the Directorate of Estates requesting that a residence be allotted to the national secretary of AAP “in the middle of New Delhi”, but they never responded to the letter, following which the party then wrote three subsequent reminder letters dated August 22 and September 13 last year and August 21 this year.
“All these requests fell on deaf ears, and the respondents failed to even respond to the letters, let alone act as required under applicable laws and regulations,” AAP said.
Pointing out that Kejriwal, who was the chief minister of Delhi, resigned from the post on September 17, the petition said, “To post such a vacation, there is no government accommodation reserved for him, as he continues to work as the minister of state. de jure and the head of the petitioner’s party (AAP).
Later, two letters were written to the Directorate of Estates on September 20 and 27 requesting government accommodation but the same has not been responded to, Adv Rahul Mehra, representing AAP, told the court.