HC reserves order in Amarinder expulsion case

Chandigarh, Sep 12 (UNI) The Punjab and Haryana high court today reserved its order on the plea of former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh against the state Vidhan Sabha order removing him from the membership of the House for the rest of the term of the current assembly and declaring the Patiala city constituency represented by him as vacant.

The September 10 order of the House which had been challanged in the High Court by Capt Singh yesterday was adjourned for today by the Division Bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Ajay Tewari.

The same Bench after hearing the arguments in the case today, reserved its order and said that the same would be announced after three or four days.

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau yesterday registered a case against Capt Singh and six others at its police station in Mohali under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The resolution passed by the House on the concluding day of the monsoon session of the assembly on September 10 accepted the report of the House Special Committee holding Capt Singh guilty of misusing his powers in exempting 32.10 acres of prime land along NH-I in Amritsar from a development scheme of the Improvement Trust.

The scam took place during the tenure of Capt Singh and in March 2006 he had assured the assembly that an inquiry by a House Committee would be held in the case. However no inquiry took place and the decision to probe the issue was taken up by the present House after the SAD-BJP came to power and for this a 9-member House Committee was established in January this year.

The report of the House Committee was presented in the assembly on Septembeer 5 and yesterday a resolution was passed to expel Capt Singh. The others indicted in this report included, former Local Bodies Minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, former Urban Development Minister, the late Raghunath Sahay Puri and former Amritsar Improvement Trust Chairman, Jugal Kishore Sharma.

After his expulsion, Capt Singh had announced that he would approach the High Court as the decision of the House was unconstitutional.

UNI XC HS DB 1618