Why the Delhi Gymkhana eviction should terrify every housing society and hospital in India

Part 1 of this series tracked the chaotic five-year descent of the Delhi Gymkhana Club under state control, where court mandates for corporate democracy were buried under a mountain of unadopted accounts, questionable political appointees, and a literal security crisis at the Prime Minister's doorstep.

Here’s Part 2: It deals with the run-up to two eviction orders against the Club set five weeks apart, earlier this year – in the backdrop of a sudden volley of eviction notices and court actions against other prominent establishments, residences and legacy sporting assets in the heart of Delhi.

A well-crafted media strategy starts with distraction. 

In the case of the Delhi Gymkhana Club, whose membership is so desperately coveted, a campaign about elites hogging public land was an easy pitch to a pliant media. No one wanted to hear the spoiler alert that the Club’s middle class fauji and babu membership survives on service pensions, is largely pro-BJP and drives to the Club mostly in Marutis and Honda Citys. 

But the real issue is far more serious than people crowing over the misfortune of an ‘elitist’ club. A quick fact check.

Firstly – the Club’s land is not public land. The tax payer doesn’t pay for it any more than he or she pays for your home. 

It is leasehold land with ownership rights just like millions of others across the country, put to varied uses – housing societies like Dwarka or D.N. Nagar, lakhs of DDA/MHADA allotments, residential areas like Sujan Singh Park or Karol Bagh, almost all sporting clubs with membership like CCI or Tollygunge,  hotels like the Taj or Oberoi, institutions like the 18.5 acre Jio World Centre, India International Centre or hospitals like Apollo or Lilavati. 

Secondly, unlike most others, the Club’s lease is also perpetual. The takeover of management by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) doesn’t preclude its rights over its land. 

If a perpetual lease and appropriate land use aren’t enough to safeguard you from a government that wants the ground under you, what is? 

The answer is nothing. 

As shown in the recent takeover of the Jaipur Polo Ground, the Gymkhana Club, the notice to Ambassador Hotel, the notice to Sujan Singh Park residents, and the warning shots fired on Bombay Gymkhana and Breach Candy Club – a fundamental instability hangs over property rights now. The messaging that comes across is that the state-backed surety of leasehold lands cannot be relied upon.

The first drive that took the best parts of Delhi away from the citizens started with Delhi’s Central Vista project in 2020, where 100 acres of public land was transferred to the government, including its biggest cultural asset, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). With it came the loss of public access to historic Vijay Chowk, India Gate, and Rashtrapati Bhawan.

This second drive extends its reach further to target institutions, century-old residences, cultural assets, sporting grounds, and intellectual hubs. Each of these serves the citizen. Yet all of them have been subject to extraordinary powers that can take away decades of investment and institution-building as assets of the city and reserve them for barricaded use by the government or privileged VIP users.

Like the first drive, this exercise too evicts the citizen from the finest parts of the city. 

If so, what is the purpose? 

This exact question was asked of the state by Judge Neena Bansal Krishna hearing the Jaipur Polo Ground case. It was pertinently framed around democratic citizen rights vs the government’s extraordinary powers.  

“Why do you want the Polo Club? What are you going to do with all these heritage structures even in Gymkhana” she asked. “Make 20-storey buildings? Little breather we have in the NDMC area – even that is going to go!.... The small lung that we have, you are going to take it away. All of us will suffocate and die.”

There has been no answer to this beyond the opaque response of “security.” 

The original mandate for the Delhi Gymkhana Club: Clean up 

The Delhi Gymkhana Club was put under the government’s radar way back in 2018. How exactly did government oversight and management result in the shock eviction of its members from the Delhi Gymkhana Club’s land eight years later? Was the goal really ever about cleaning up its messy affairs or always just about the land? 

The answers lie in the way pieces of the eviction puzzle emerge over years. This is a story to be read in timelines and acts of omission and commission.

Two governmental teams were in play, seemingly on opposite sides. The government appointees including the General Committee (GC) of eight Directors who were put in place by the MCA to clean up and hand the Club back to its elected members – but never did. (See Part 1) And the Land & Development Office (L&DO), who presented demands that seemed shocking in their suddenness and arbitrariness, but followed a prudent, official paper trail.

This is where the second part of the story starts.

A policy of action and inaction by separate arms of the government resulted in the unfolding of events as they did – ending with not one but two eviction orders.

This is the key to understanding the broader picture. 

2023: Revised rent and the run up to L&DO’s first eviction notice

A perpetual lease means what it says. It is perpetual. Re-entry or land takeover would require more solid grounds. 

The L&DO handles over 60,000 leasehold properties for the government. In December 2023 it suddenly asked the Club for a revised ground rent. 

The revised amount was a bolt from the blue. It rocketed from Rs 409.50 to Rs 4.10 crore annually – or incredibly – “10,000 times the original ground rent” for the first time in 90 years according to a report in The Indian Express. 

The timeline below establishes how the demand escalates, through several communications over two and a half years. 

2025-26: Members kept in the dark about L&DO’s escalated Ground Rent demand

Two things stand out from this timeline. 

Firstly, members were kept in the dark throughout the two-and-a-half years from December 2023 regarding the L&DO's revised demand, escalations, and even the eviction notice. 

Secondly, the L&DO eviction letter mentions a request to provide “rent deeds” to examine a possible “breach of lease”. This went unheeded. It also states  that MCA-appointed directors were sent “multiple notices”. They did not respond to them.

“The government nominated committee totally failed to do the task they’re mandated for,” says Major Atul Dev, member of the former General Committee who is leading a legal challenge to the government’s intervention. Referring to the serious consequences of their non-response he says, ”The letter is very clear – it seeks re-entry. We (members) were not even aware – had we been, we could have taken some action in time.” 

The run up to L&DO’s second eviction notice in five weeks

After the first eviction notice in April, the MCA-appointed Club management waited till the last day of the deadline to move the Delhi High Court on May 7. 

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav noted of the L&DO escalations that “there does not seem to be any final determination to the demand”. On May 14, the High Court was informed by the MCA-appointed GC counsel, that attempts for an amicable resolution were being made. The Judge therefore pushed the hearing to July 21 to give time for these efforts. 

The L&DO committed to the resolution efforts and gave no inkling to the High Court that it was contemplating or planning another action. Then exactly one week later, on May 22, it delivered a shock second eviction document.

This one had nothing to do with the payment. Instead it cited “security”.

The Deputy L&DO officer, Suchit Goyal, who committed to resolve the matter on May 14 in the High Court, was the same person who signed the second eviction order on May 22. 

Kohli’s Way Forward report: Was land always the goal? 

A fee hike of arbitrary and massive proportion, multiple notices ignored over two and a half years, two eviction orders on unrelated grounds in five weeks and members left in the dark. What was it all for? 

This convoluted set of events indicates the challenge for two government teams to bat on opposite sides. The missed chances, illogical delays, and bare minimum actions demonstrate at the very least, a questionable  intent that runs counter to the purported mandate of bringing transparency and financial propriety to the Club.

The Way Forward Report written by MCA-appointed Director and BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli in September 2025 (See Part 1) provides the context for this. (This report was also kept secret from the members and came into circulation just earlier this month). 

It is peppered with references to two main thrusts. 

The first major thrust: ‘Violations’ that lead to ‘re-entry’ of land

The surprise in the report is why government-nominated appointees assigned to clear up Club affairs and restore it to health advocate the last-ditch, drastic route of re-entry and land takeover via violations – at the very start. The term “re-entry” came up repeatedly even before the government formally took over.  

Kohli’s report cites an old quarterly Inspection Report that states under “Violation of Lease terms”, that the lessor – i.e. the government, should “review compliance or re-enter premises as it thinks fit” and recommends “examination of lease violations” in general without citing what they are. 

The interesting thing is that it is dated July 31, 2019 – more than seven years ago – when the MCA first started looking into the Club affairs.

Kohli’s own report written in May 2025, a year before the eviction notice in May 2026, also echoes the same words and recommends that, “the lessor may want to examine the terms of the lease deed and re-enter the premises if it thinks fit.” 

Kohli’s report does identify some violations but remains hazy on detail. 

It cites certain unapproved “construction activities” and the rental of a room to Punjab National Bank as violations. If so, it is unclear whether these are compoundable. It’s difficult to believe that the rental of one room to a bank for members’ convenience, on 27 acres, is an offence that could warrant an extreme action like the takeover of all 27 acres.

Other issues listed like “organising private events on Club premises” and that the Club “possibly deviated from the plan” without specifying either the deviations or the plan, are equally unclear. 

Finally the first L&DO eviction order in April this year, also follows the same script for eviction i.e. re-entry and takeover of land justified by ‘violations’ of non-payment of dues.

Curiously, though the Club‘s land use has been Recreational in all Master Plans, Kohli’s report advocates that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) examine “land use of the leasehold land allotted to the company” and take actions in “public interest”. 

“Even the next Master Plan of 2041 has this land marked for Recreational Use,” remarks former Home Secretary and member GK Pillai who points out the existential nature of the challenge having a government nominated GC ‘representing’ the members and ‘opposing’ the government takeover. 

“They are supposed to represent the interests of the shareholders. But they are totally dependent on the government –  one of the government nominees (Anita Shah Akella) is even the Joint Secretary of Corporate Affairs!” 

The double dance 

The irony of the complex routine followed is compelling. 

The L&DO eviction order in April states that the Club has failed to remedy the “breaches” of the lease that it identified earlier “despite multiple notices”. 

The sequence is thus set up like this: 

➜ Alleged “breaches” identified by L&DO in October 2023. Multiple notices follow asking for rent deeds of Punjab National Bank. 

➜ Club management, i.e. Kohli’s report, reiterates the same “breaches” in September 2025 but takes no action to rectify them. Apparently ignores the notices.

➜ First L&DO eviction notice in April 2026 cites flouting these “breaches” and failure to provide rent deeds as cause for eviction despite multiple notices to remedy. 

Two arms of the government work separately – but the result is an eviction order.

One arm of the government  identifies the breaches and raises the notices to remedy them. The second arm sitting inside the Club acknowledges the same in a report two years later, which it shares with no one, but ignores the notices and refuses to hand over rent deeds as requested. Seven months later, the first arm then orders eviction because the second has neglected to deal with it.

Does this qualify for Trojan horse or double dance? Either way, the mechanics are the same. 

All this while the members are in the dark and their subscriptions and Club funds are being used to ‘challenge’ the case in court.

Second major thrust: Government membership and control

The second major thrust of Kohli’s Way Forward report paints an alternate picture. This one is not a surprise. 

Despite the government’s polarising narrative of “elitism”, in the end it wants the same thing: a massively increased government membership presence beyond the current ratio of 40-40-20; and government control of the General Committee (GC). 

A management body, mandated to democratise the Club membership and make it transparent while simultaneously coveting membership spots for itself?

It also holds the power to change the process. The September 2025 Way Forward report wants to rewrite the rulebook to achieve increased government control. It asks for amendment to the Club Articles: “reorganising entire membership criteria,” creating tenure members (almost all government categories) who can “apply for permanent membership at beginning of tenure,” giving government “the right to nominate 20 members like India Habitat Centre” and giving the government perpetual control over the GC.

Therefore even though there has been a freeze on members since the NCLT passed its takeover orders, the report also advocates that the government give “tenure memberships” to its (NCLT’s) own judges among others including “judges of the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court, NCLT, NCLAT etc.” It recommends “nomination of GC members” by the government to “ensure adherence to AoA bylaws, unlike in the past.”

In an acute twist of irony, the 7th Inspection Report of January 31, 2024, helpfully informs the NCLT that “requests from several Eminent Persons (including from offices of several Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court of India, High Court as well as from offices of other constitutional posts and other important positions) had been received by the Club for membership and a list of such persons also enclosed with the status report.”

The strange resistance to corporate democracy: refusal to hold polls

The advocacy for government dominance, the determined antipathy to polls and the extreme reluctance to amend membership lists despite numerous court-ordered directives – are other confounding actions of the MCA-appointed Directors.

Wherever references come up to corporate democracy, i.e. members pushing for extraordinary general meetings (EGMs), fresh polls, or the return of the Club, Kohli’s report reaches for the same sentence: “If the foundation of the election – namely the electoral roll is illegal, no election on its basis can proceed or be allowed to stand” – a phrase it repeats through the report.

But the Directors had five full years to clean up those rolls from 2021 plus a 2018 Deloitte report to guide the process. Kohli’s own report says membership updation to weed out violators was deemed to be “final” in end-November 2022 using the Deloitte report as a base. Yet four years later, the same reason is still trotted out as an excuse for not holding polls.

A drastic leap

The original NCLT judgement in April 2022 asked for corrective actions by the Directors under its remit. Its limited and clear aim was to “restructure” the Delhi Gymkhana Club “in terms of the Memorandum (MoA) and Articles of Association (AoA) and the Companies Act 2013”.

From there to seizing the Club’s land is a drastic leap across a grand and wide canyon, full of legal minefields and lethal future implications. 

Could this be the reason why the move turned drastic?

See the timeline below.

2024 NCLAT judgement to hold polls still stands

The timeline reveals two things. 

The explicit judgement in 2024 in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) clearly states Club polls must be held by latest June 30, 2025. The determined refusal over nineteen months to hold polls by the deadline and exit speaks for itself. 

Secondly, the 2024 judgement still stands nineteen months after it was passed. 

The contempt notice against the MCA-appointed Directors on August 29, 2025, still stands unreplied ten months after being issued.

The key to understanding these two judgements is that they come after five years of other actions, court interventions and extraordinary events. Every time the courts kept circling back and arriving at the same place – the reinstatement of the Club to its members. The legal current has always run in the direction of the law – toward restoration of corporate democracy and exit – and not takeover.

Following the trail of breadcrumbs then, it seems drastic action for eviction came after legal routes to take over the land led to dead ends. 

A management committee that never finished the task. 

For years, the MCA appointed management committee made all the right noises. On paper, it commissioned the reports, prepared the lists, worked the data, weeded out the fakes, hiked the charges and improved the bottom line. 

Yet it never actioned the commissioned reports and forensic audits, never allowed its auditors access, never finalised the accounts, never held the elections in contempt of Court orders, never consulted the stakeholders and never actually fixed anything in five long years. 

A Governing Committee hollowed out from inside that doesn’t report, ignores tax demands, takes last minute, bare minimum actions, locks members out of basic information and ‘represents’ their worst interests by advocating eviction even as it fights it with their money in crores – tells its own story. 

Thus the crucial question remains: what can be the sanctity of a contract if the plug can be pulled out at any time? Millions of institutions, hospitals, clubs, NGOs, sports institutions and cultural centres across the country now stand to live in perpetual insecurity of being axed by the government on a whim just because it has the power to. With its determined push to acquire historic and legacy institutions, residences and commercial establishments the government signals that no one is safe and that the citizen figures on no one’s priority list. 

What remains is only the prospect of yet another new barricaded VIP/bureaucratic enclave that has been gifted precious public or private land for yet another chosen developer. This is the real elite.

As Judge Neena Bansal Krishna says  – “Only you know what you are going to make Delhi into. God save us all if this is how you want Delhi to live!”

Newslaundry reached out to Nalin Kohli via email seeking his response. We also reached out to the Secretary of the Delhi Gymkhana Club via email to seek his response. This story will be updated if and when responses are received.

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