Plot allotment case: HC extends stay on trial against Associated Journals, Hooda
2
Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday extended its stay on the trial in the special CBI court, Panchkula, against former Haryana chief minister
Bhupinder Singh Hooda
and Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) in a plot allotment case.
The stay will continue until Oct 27. "The application has been filed, seeking an extension of the interim order dated July 1, 2021, granting a stay of proceedings before the trial court, to be continued until the next date of hearing, which is October 27, 2025. It has also been pointed out that the stay was operating until April 3, 2025; however, due to oversight, it could not be extended while adjourning the matter on Aug 6 to Oct 27.
In these circumstances, the application is allowed, and it is directed that the interim order dated July 1, 2021, shall remain in effect until the next date of hearing," the court observed in its order.
Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya passed these orders after hearing an application filed by AJL seeking directions to quash the order dated April 16, 2021, passed by the special CBI judge in Panchkula framing charges against them.
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In April 2021, the CBI court framed charges against Hooda and the Gandhi family's AJL under sections 120B and 420 of the IPC and sections 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Challenging the framing of charges in the case, the counsel for Hooda submitted that the allegation of him favouring AJL in the restoration of the plot, in normal parlance, would presume the rehabilitation of the status quo ante.
"It was always open to the authority to take a decision in the matter of the price at which it was to be restored. It was specifically raised that as per the discharge application, the policy for allotment of institutional plots of a non-commercial nature was based on recovery of cost only.
It was highlighted that on May 14, 2005, the petitioner also asked the senior functionaries of the authority to consider the possibility of allotment at the current rate," counsel for Hooda submitted.
The HC was also informed that when all issues were raised before the special CBI judge in Panchkula before the framing of charges, the judge repeatedly pushed directly relevant questions to the stage of trial without any authority of law. Earlier, on Dec 1, 2018, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Hooda, Moti Lal Vora, and AJL in the special CBI court in Panchkula, for alleged illegal re-allotment of land to AJL in Panchkula in 2005.
Vora, however, died recently. As per the allegations, an industrial plot in Panchkula was illegally re-allotted to AJL, which is reportedly controlled by senior Congress leaders, including the Gandhi family, through Young India Ltd.
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