HC admits petition of Amarinder challenging expulsion

Chandigarh, Sep 15 (UNI) The Punjab and Haryana High Court while pronouncing its order reserved on September 12 today admitted the writ petition filed by former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and fixed December 1 as the final date of hearing.

The writ petition challenging his expulsion came up for hearing before the division bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ajay Tewari.

The bench while pronouncing its judgement issued notice to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha through the secretary to file its response to the petition on or before October 31 and the rejoinder that might be filed by the petitioner by November 15.

The Bench, however, ordered an interim stay on the direction of the Vidhan Sabha which said that custodiual interrogation of Capt Singh and others was essential in the Amritsar Improvement Trust land scam case.

The Bench made it clear that this interim order did not prevent the investigating officer to conduct custodial interrogation in accordance with law if consdered otherwsie necessary.

Capt Singh was expelled from the Vidhan Sabha for the rest of its term on the last day of the monsoon session, September 10 after a House Committee found him guilty in the 32.10 acre land scam case that took place during his chief ministership tenure. Besides Capt Singh other indicted in the land scam were former ministers, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and late Raghunath Sahay Puri and former Amritsar Improvement Trust Chairman Jugal Kishore Sharma.

A resolution adopted by the Assembly also recommended registeration of a corruption case against Capt Singh and others and a probe by the state Vigilance Bureau. The Vigilance Bureau already registered a case under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against Capt Singh and six others at Mohali.

UNI XC-HS SW CS1432