The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that the allotment of residential accommodation cannot be based purely on whims of the authorities.
The High Court was hearing a plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party, seeking the allotment of a bungalow for its national convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Justice Sachin Datta ordered the joint secretary of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs as well as the Director of Directorate of Estates to be present before it virtually on September 25, the next date of hearing, according to a report by PTI.
“How priority is taken into account, sequence of allotment?… Assuming there is a limited number of bungalows, how do you decide?” the Court asked.
It further added, “There has to be a transparent mechanism and it cannot be purely on your whims. As long as there is a clear discernible policy… I want to know the manner of assessing priority. I am concerned with the larger issue as to how the discretion is applied in allotment of bungalows.”
At the time of hearing, the Centre’s counsel told the court that the Type VII bungalow at 35, Lodhi Estate, which the AAP had proposed to allot to Kejriwal, was on July 24 allotted to Union Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary.
The submission was made following the court’s previous directive to specify the exact date when the bungalow at 35 Lodhi Estate was allocated to the MoS.
The court also directed that the extant policy followed by the government for residential allotment should be brought on record in an affidavit which should also disclose allotments made in the past and how the policy was applied.
The court, on September 16, pulled up the central government for delaying its decision in allotting the residential accommodation to Kejriwal. The court observed the government’s approach resembled a “free system for all” and it could not selectively decide as to who got a house.
The Centre was asked to submit by September 18 records outlining the policy governing the allotment of houses from the general pool of residential accommodation and the current waiting list.
