The Delhi High Court has directed the Central Government to allow two officers of the Central Secretariat Club to access its premises and collect their belongings, after its office bearers were evicted from the property.

Justice Amit Mahajan passed the direction while hearing a plea filed by the Central Secretariat Club challenging the Union Government's decision to withdraw its recognition and evict it from its premises.

The Court noted that the Club had been functioning since 1926 and that possession of the premises had been taken over pursuant to the impugned order, which resulted in the Club being derecognised.

The Court was further informed that the office bearers of the Club had since been evicted from the property.

As the matter could not be finally heard, the Court directed the authorities to permit two officers of the Club to visit the premises and collect their belongings and other articles.

“The respondents are directed to permit two officers of the petitioner, to visit the subject premises and collect all their belongings and other items, the list of which shall be provided to the respondents after visiting the property,” the Court ordered.

It said that after the list is provided, the authorities shall take steps for facilitating the collection of the said goods or items by the Club.

Central Government Standing Counsel Radhika Bishwajit Dubey was requested to coordinate with the concerned officers of the Club and the department concerned to ensure compliance with the direction within two weeks.

The matter has been listed for further hearing on December 21.

The plea sought quashing of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) derecognition order passed on July 14 and the Estate Officer's eviction order dated July 17.

According to the Club, the impugned actions resulted in the authorities taking possession of its premises on July 21.

The petitioner submitted that the Central Secretariat Club, formerly known as the Talkatora Club, is a 107-year-old institution established in 1919 and that the impugned derecognition and eviction orders are arbitrary and unconstitutional.

According to the petition, the dispute arose after DoPT constituted an ad hoc administrative committee in March 2023 to conduct elections for a period of two months.

The Club alleged that the committee unlawfully continued for nearly two years, illegally exceeded its mandate and was responsible for several financial and administrative irregularities.

As per the plea, the irregularities included delayed GST filings, non-payment of statutory dues, irregularities in bar operations, failure to maintain statutory records, non-filing of tax returns, illegal payments, arbitrary suspension of employees and deletion of members during a verification exercise.

The Club said that instead of taking corrective action on the alleged “severe grievances,” the Centre initially attempted to bypass the due process by issuing an “arbitrary Office Memorandum” on February 24 withdrawing its recognition without issuing any show cause notice or extending an opportunity of hearing.

The plea added that the authorities were “attempting to weaponize” their own administrative failures and misdeeds of their ad hoc committee to “forcefully dispossess and extinguish” a historic institution, which is in flagrant violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and principles of natural justice.

Counsel for Petitioner: Ms. Diya Kapur, Sr. Adv. with Mr. Nakul Gandhi, Mr. Akhil Sachhar, Mr. Darshit Sidhabatti, Ms. Anushka Khaitan, Mr. Raghav Kumar & Ms. Shruti Jain, Advs

Counsel for Respondents: Ms. Radhika Bishwajit Dubey, CGSC with Ms. Gurleen Kaur Waraich, Mr. Kritarth Upadhyay, Mr. Amulya Dev Mishra & Mr. Saksham Sharma, Advs