There have been several instances of financial impropriety and tax evasion by the club, notes BJP leader and Delhi minister Parvesh Verma

The Union government has ordered Delhi Gymkhana Club, operating on government land, to hand over its entire premises by June 5, 2026. The order draws the curtains on the club’s more than century-old tale of colonial decadence, post-colonial privilege and an ever-present social and cultural apartheid.

Not to forget the club’s long list of alleged financial irregularities, tax evasion & opaque management, inviting legal wrath from several courts or tribunals from time to time.

Thus, the government’s order has ignited several debates around elitism, urban land-use, national security as well as de-colonisation.

The order states how the club’s premises, “located in a highly sensitive and strategic area of Delhi, is critically required for the strengthening and securing of defence infrastructure and other vital public security purposes”. It adds, “The land is essential to fulfil urgent institutional needs, governance infrastructure, and public-interest projects, integrated with the resumption of adjoining government lands.”

In other words, the club’s government-owned land has a huge opportunity cost.

Why then, can it not be used to fulfil the larger public interest than to subsidise aristocracy? If a country’s common people, farmers or even the most marginalised sections of the society can offer their private land to the government for building national infrastructure such as highways, roads etc., why can’t the country’s socio-economic elite be expected to do the same? That too, when their sporting-cum-social club operates on government and not private land.

The topic pits the indulgences of a privileged few against the larger public interest.

Moreover, there have been several instances of financial impropriety and tax evasion by the club that has been reprimanded, penalised and held guilty for them by several courts, authorities or tribunals.

To mention a few, the Delhi government, in 2014, had moved to seize the bank accounts of the club for its failure to pay luxury tax for several years. Later that year, the club invited the wrath of Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) for inadequate waste management, absence of rainwater harvesting, and illegal use of borewells. The DPCC had thereupon ordered the club’s immediate closure, and the National Green Tribunal had imposed a heavy fine.