Haryana Adv Gen denies he fought RSS case

Chandigarh, May 3 (UNI) Haryana Advocate General Hawa Singh Hooda today denied that he represented the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the defamation case filed by it against Union Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh in a trial court in Jagadhri.

The Advocate General's clarification comes in the wake of recent reports that Mr Arjun Singh had taken strong exception to the fact that Mr Hooda's name was included in the list of lawyers representing the RSS. The Sangh had filed the defamation case against the HRD Minister in 2004 for associating its name with Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

Talking to UNI, Mr Hooda said he had not appeared even once in the Jagadhri court to argue the RSS case against Mr Arjun Singh.

He, however, admitted that the petitioner in the case had approached him along with some advocates and requested him to fight their case. ''But I had refused to take up the case there and then.'' When Mr Hooda was asked as to how his name appeared in the list of lawyers representing the RSS, he said the petitioner had included his name without his knowledge with the hope that he would be able to persuade him to take up the case with the help of the advocates known to him.

''When I asked them how come they mentioned my name among the lawyers without getting my signatures, they said it was put inadvertently.'' MORE UNI MA SHB PM1735