SC junks plea for enforcing Delhi CM promise on rent
On Monday the Supreme Court dismissed the challenge to the September 2021 order of the Delhi High Court division bench temporarily staying the Single Judge order making promises extended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for payment of rent on behalf of poor tenants enforceable.
CM Arvind Kejriwal had delivered a speech on 29th March 2020 in a press conference where, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he had requested all landlords to postpone the demand/ collection of rent from those tenants who are poor and poverty-stricken.
A bench comprising Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant was considering a special leave petition filed against the HC Division Bench’s stay order.
Justice Chandrachud orally quoted the relevant excerpt from the speech in Hindi as it was originally delivered. The official translation of the excerpt read out by the judge (as reproduced in the Delhi High Court Single Bench’s order) is as follows- “…In a month or two when this Corona and let’s assume after this entire mess is over, if a tenant has been unable to pay rent due to poverty, I assure you the Government will pay for it. I am talking about those tenants who may be unable to pay some of their rent due to lack of means…”
Justice Chandrachud orally observed, “Look at the speech- ‘Thhoda bahaut kiraya‘ (some of their rent)…can you apply promissory estoppel to it? Can that be the intent of Carlill v. Carbolic (Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1892] EWCA Civ 1 is an English contract law decision by the Court of Appeal, which held that an advertisement containing certain terms to get a reward constituted a binding unilateral offer that could be accepted by anyone who performed its terms). There has to be some policy, a notification has to be issued…”
Both the judges, Justice Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant, dictated in its order that the “instant SLP has been filed against an interlocutory order of the Division bench of the High Court passed in an appeal against the Single Judge’s judgment” and hence, “no case for interference under Article 136 is made out” and the SLP is dismissed “only on that ground”.
Justice Chandrachud orally added to the advocate for the petitioner,
“We have said that the SLP is against an interlocutory order and is dismissed only on that ground.”
In July 2021, in a notable judgment, the Delhi High Court held that a promise or assurance was given by the Chief Minister in a press conference amount to an enforceable promise and that a CM is expected to exercise his authority to give effect to such a promise. The single-judge bench of Justice Pratibha M Singh observed thus:
“The promise/assurance/representation given by the CM clearly amounts to an enforceable promise, the implementation of which ought to be considered by the Government. Good governance requires that promises made to citizens, by those who govern, are not broken, without valid and justifiable reasons.”
Furthermore, it said:
“The CM is expected to have had the said knowledge and is expected to exercise his authority to give effect to his promise/ assurance. To that extent, it would not be out of the place to state that a reasonable citizen would believe that the CM has spoken on behalf of his Government while making the said promise.”
The Court was dealing with a petition filed by daily wage labourers/ workers, who were unable to pay their monthly rent, to seek enforcement of a promise made by the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal dated 29th March last year.
In September 2021, the Division Bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said that operation and implementation of the single judge order will be kept in abeyance till the next date of hearing, ie., November 29. It also orally asked the Government if it is willing to pay in part.
The development came in an appeal preferred by the Delhi Government against the single judge order. Senior Advocate Manish Vashisht claimed that Kejriwal’s statement was not a “promise”.
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