The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice on a plea filed by the Central Secretariat Club challenging the Union Government's decision to withdraw its recognition and evict it from its premises.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma sought response of the Central Government and directed that a short reply be filed in the matter.

The Club is represented by Senior Advocate Diya Kapur and Advocate Nakul Gandhi.

During the hearing today, Kapur said that the derecognition order is bad in law and was perverse in nature. She said that the impugned order was passed without any prior notice and that the action was followed by the Club being served an eviction notice.

Though Kapur sought that status quo be maintained in the interim, the Court simply issued notice and listed the matter for hearing on August 24.

The plea seeks 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 submits 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 has 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 has 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 adds that the authorities are “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.

Title: CENTRAL SECRETARIAT CLUB v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS