Delhi High Court Grants Relief to century-old Roshanara Club against Eviction by DDA

The Delhi High Court recently issued an order to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to not take any coercive steps against Delhi’s century old Roshanara Club. The order was passed by Justice Mini Pushkarna, who noted that the club has been in existence for more than 100 years and has made immense contributions to the society by providing access to various players of national importance for playing in its grounds.

The Court was informed that the DDA had issued an eviction order to the club on April 12, 2023. The club had sent a representation to the DDA to renew its lease in August 2018, to which the DDA responded in September 2018, saying that the representation was under consideration. The Court further noted that the scheme and policy of the DDA for renewal of the long term expired leases, was still under consideration and no final decision with respect to it had been taken yet.

The bench also observed that in similar circumstances when the lease deed of Delhi Golf Club expired in the year 2018, the DDA had renewed the lease/licence of the Delhi Golf Club. Justice Pushkarna, therefore, granted interim relief to the petitioner club and granted them the liberty to take appropriate steps in terms of the statutory remedies available against the eviction order.

The Roshanara Club was founded in the year 1922 by a group of British, bureaucrats and the “emerging Indian elite”. Senior Advocates Sandeep Sethi and Mohit Mathur along with advocates Sameer Rohatgi, Lalltaksh Joshi, Nishant Yadav, Manish Aggarwal, Shreya Sethi, Vikram Singh Dalal, Tanvi Tewari, Virender Mehta, Abhinav Shokeen and Prabhat Gandhi appeared for the Roshanara Club. The DDA was represented through its Standing Counsel Manika Tripathy and advocate Shubham Hasija.

In conclusion, the Court ordered that no coercive steps be taken against the petitioner club solely on the ground that the lease of the petitioner club has already expired.