HC to Hear Mahua Moitra's Plea Against Move to Oust Her from Official Residence on Jan 4

The Delhi High Court said on Tuesday it will hear January 4 TMC leader Mahua Moitra’s petition challenging the cancellation of allotment of government quarters to her following her expulsion from the Lok Sabha, after noting that the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear her plea against dismissal from Parliament on January 3.

Justice Subramonium Prasad said since Moitra has challenged her expulsion from the Lok Sabha before the Supreme Court in a separate petition, any order passed by the high court would amount to impinging on the apex court proceedings.

“You have challenged the order (of expulsion) by filing a writ petition. One of the prayers can also be for a stay of the order, in the interim application. If the Supreme Court grants a stay, consequences will follow which will include your suspension will be stayed. If you are inviting this court to pass an order, it will be directly impinging upon the matter pending in the Supreme Court in the writ petition. The Supreme Court opens on January 2 so, we will hear it on January 4,” Justice Prasad said.

As the counsel for Moitra urged the high court to direct the Directorate of Estates, which has passed the order cancelling the allotment, to file a reply to the petition before January 4, the high court said it will consider the prayer during the next hearing that day.

The petition has sought the Directorate of Estates’ December 11 order to be set aside. In the alternative, it has sought the court’s direction for allowing Moitra to retain possession of the accommodation till the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are declared.

Senior advocate Pinaki Misra, appearing for Moitra, submitted that the petitioner was only seeking to retain possession of the government accommodation till May 31, 2024. Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma and central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia represented the Directorate of Estates.

Moitra was held guilty of “unethical conduct” and expelled from the Lok Sabha on December 8, 2023, for allegedly accepting gifts from businessman Darshan Hiranandani and sharing her user ID and password of the Parliament website with him.

She challenged her expulsion in the Supreme Court after the Lok Sabha adopted the report of its ethics committee recommending her ouster. The case is listed for hearing on January 3.

In her plea before the high court, Moitra said, “The impugned order (for cancelling allotment) is premature as the validity of the petitioner’s expulsion is pending adjudication before the Supreme Court of India.

In such circumstances – where whether the petitioner is an unauthorised occupant’ at all is under adjudication before the highest constitutional court of the land – the respondent no. 1 (Directorate of Estates), as an executing authority, cannot initiate proceedings under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act 1971 for evicting the petitioner.

It is only once the petitioner’s claim over rightfully occupying the government accommodation is duly adjudicated, does the question of the estate office’s/ respondent no. 1’s jurisdiction arises, the plea said.

Moitra said she was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal in the 2019 general elections and her party has chosen her as its candidate from there for the 2024 LS polls as well.

Since the expulsion from the Lok Sabha does not disqualify her from contesting elections, she will be running again and will need to focus her time and energy on her constituents, it said.

Instability in accommodation, however, would pose a significant impediment to the petitioner’s ability to host and engage with party members, parliamentarians, fellow politicians, visiting constituents, key stakeholders and other dignitaries, which is essential, especially in the lead-up to a general election, the plea said.

She said she is living alone in Delhi and has no other place of residence or alternative accommodation here and, if evicted from her government accommodation, she will have to fulfil the duties of campaigning while also trying to find a new residence.

This will place an onerous burden on the petitioner. Thus, in the alternative, the petitioner prays that she be allowed to continue residing in her current house till the results of the 2024 General Elections.

If the petitioner is so allowed, she will readily undertake to pay any charges that may be applicable for the extended period of stay, the petition said.