New Delhi, Apr 6 The Delhi High Court on Monday ruled that an assurance given by then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in March 2020 on payment of rent on behalf of poor tenants during the Covid-induced lockdown cannot be enforced by his statement was not followed up by any official action.
The ruling by a bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and O P Shukla came on an appeal by the Delhi government against a single judge's 2021 decision, which held that the chief minister's promise to the citizens was enforceable in nature.
"A mere statement made by the chief minister would not be enforceable in law, even if the citizens to whom it was made believed it to be so.
"In as much as the assurance to pay the rent, out of State funds, was not translated to any written document, Office Memorandum, Notification, Circular, or any other instrument having the force of law, it cannot be enforced merely because it was made in a statement during the press conference," the bench said, as it rejected a prayer by several daily wagers to implement the assurance.
The division bench observed that Kejriwal's announcement that rent on behalf of the poor tenants would be paid by the State, made in a press conference held on March 29, 2020, was not supported by any legal provision and was "apparently made in the heat of the situation".
The court stated that although the Delhi government ought to have translated the assurance into a written document, that never happened, and even the order issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on the same day as the press conference did not envisage payment of rent by the State.
"There is nothing, before us, to indicate that, before he extended the said assurance, the Chief Minister, or the executive authorities below him, had assessed the financial and other implications of the assurance, or the impact that it would have on the State exchequer. Given the position that the country found itself at that point of time, we indeed doubt whether any such exercise was even possible, let alone within the span of a single day," the court said.
"We are, therefore, of the clear view that the assurance that the State would pay the rent of the migrants, for the period during which the lockdown remained in force, having not been followed up with any official documentation to that effect, cannot be enforced by a writ of mandamus," opined the court.
In the appeal, the Delhi government contended that the petitions were not maintainable before the single judge as they sought enforcement of a statement made by a politician, without any supportive law or policy of the government.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the chief minister had not made his statement "in the air". He said that the authorities cannot enforce the March 29, 2020, DDMA which barred the landlords from demanding rent while avoiding the statement made by the then chief minister.
In its 50-page verdict, the division bench, however, rejected the Delhi government's contention that the assurance was merely a political statement, saying a chief minister's statement cannot be "lightly dismissed".
The court asserted the distinction between a statement made by a politician before being elected to public office and one made subsequently.
It clarified that the state government was free to take a policy decision on the assurance given by the former chief minister in his press conference.
The court further said that since the DDMA order of March 29, 2020, was never challenged, landlords cannot recover rent from their migrant tenants for the lockdown period.
On July 22, 2021, Justice Prathiba M Singh ruled that a chief minister's promise to citizens was enforceable. She directed the AAP government to decide within six weeks on Arvind Kejriwal's announcement that the state would pay rent on behalf of poor tenants unable to do so due to COVID-19.
The single-judge bench said the assurance was not a "political promise", as it was not made as a part of an election rally but it was the statement made by the Delhi Chief Minister.
"A statement given in a consciously held press conference, in the background of the lockdown announced due to the pandemic and the mass exodus of migrant labourers, cannot be simply overlooked.
"Proper governance requires the government to take a decision on the assurance given by the CM, and inaction on the same cannot be the answer," the single judge had said in its 89-page verdict.
The petitioners before the single-judge bench were daily wagers and workers who sought to enforce the promise made by Kejriwal as they were unable to pay rent to their landlords. A petition was also filed by a landlord for the enforcement of the assurance.
