The Supreme Court on Thursday granted time till May 31, 2022 to former Union minister Sharad Yadav to vacate the government bungalow allotted to him as a Member of Parliament on humanitarian grounds. The court has asked Sharad Yadav to give an affidavit within a week to tell that he will vacate the bungalow by then. In the event of not doing so, they will have to vacate the premises immediately in compliance with the order of the Delhi High Court.
Sharad Yadav’s lawyer Kapil Sibb said that he should be given two months time. By May 31, he himself will vacate the house. On this, a bench of Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Surya Kant accepted the request on humanitarian grounds and said that the petitioner will have to give in writing within a week that he will vacate the house by May 31. Failure to do so will result in the exemption being deemed to have expired and the house will have to be vacated immediately as per the order of the Delhi High Court.
Initially Kapil Sibal said that if the petitioner is given a reasonable time to vacate the premises, it may be possible to settle the matter at this stage. Sibal said that it should be kept in mind that the petitioner is presently seriously ill. He wants to vacate the premises by May 31, 2022 and will file an affidavit to this effect.
Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Centre, claimed that Sharad Yadav has been attending public programs for the last 15 days. He said that a week’s time can be given to vacate the premises, but at the most, the court can give time till the end of April.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the Center to consider Sharad Yadav’s plea on “humanitarian grounds”. In this, he had said that he has been living in this bungalow for the last 22 years and he should be allowed to stay here till July this year. The court had asked the ASG to take orders from the government and consider the matter on humanitarian grounds.
Earlier, ASG Jain had said that the government was facing shortage of houses for MPs and ministers, which got aggravated after the expansion of the cabinet. Sharad Yadav, disqualified from the membership of the Rajya Sabha in December 2017, had approached the apex court seeking not to vacate his bungalow and challenged the March 15 order of the Delhi High Court, asking him to vacate the government bungalow within 15 days. was asked to do.