Delhi HC directs Haryana BJP leader’s family-owned firm to pay 50% amount in farmhouse lease row

In October last year, Additional District Judge Satyabrata Panda directed Kuldeep Bishnoi's family-owned company to deposit the sum as “use and occupation charges” at the rate of Rs 4.25 lakh per month plus an increase of 15 per cent thereupon, from April 15, 2015 to April 14, 2017.

Haryana BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi. (Express file photo by Anil Sharma)

3 min readNew DelhiJan 23, 2023 07:31 AM IST First published on: Jan 22, 2023 at 08:30 PM IST

The Delhi High Court recently directed Haryana BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi‘s family-owned company to pay 50% of the amount, as directed by a trial court in October last year, in connection with the use of a farmhouse which was leased by the company.

On January 17, a single judge bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, after hearing both sides and with their “consent”, directed the company, M/s Seth Enterprises Pvt. Ltd, to deposit 50% of the amount as per the trial court’s order on October 29, 2022, and remit the same before the trial court in “two tranches”. “The first tranche being payable within three months from today and the second instalment within three months thereafter,” the HC said disposing off the plea.

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In October last year, Additional District Judge Satyabrata Panda directed the company to deposit the sum as “use and occupation charges” at the rate of Rs 4.25 lakh per month plus an increase of 15 per cent thereupon, from April 15, 2015, to April 14, 2017.

“Similarly, further amounts will be calculated with a 15 per cent increase every two years till November 15, 2020. The defendant is directed to deposit the aforesaid amounts in the Court within two months from today,” the trial court order said, adding that the total amounts to Rs 3,75,00,568.

The company had challenged the trial court order before HC seeking a stay on the direction to “deposit the arrears of rent commencing from 15.04.2015 through till 14.04.2017”. Before the trial court, the owner of the Rajokri farmhouse M/s Nimitaya Properties Ltd., claimed in its lawsuit that in May 2013 the farmhouse was taken on a lease by Seth Enterprises specifically for residential use by the company’s managing director Bishnoi and his family on a rent of Rs. 4.25 Lakh per month for a period of two years.

As the lease agreement dated May 20, 2013, ended in April 2015, the owner of the farmhouse sent two legal notices to the company, however, the possession of the property was not handed over to the owner nor was any charge paid for its use and occupation, the lawsuit claimed. Nimitaya Properties claimed before the trial court that not only had there been a gross violation of the terms and conditions of the lease agreement, the Seth Enterprises used the premises to carry out political activities and it was also addressed as the headquarters of a political party — the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).

Additionally, the trial court in its order had allowed Bishnoi’s request to delete him as a party in Nimataya’s lawsuit, holding that all the allegations in the lawsuit had been made against the company, Seth Enterprises.

HJC started as a breakaway faction of the Indian National Congress in 2007 by Bishnoi’s father Bhajan Lal Bishnoi, a three-time Chief Minister of Haryana.