HC stays summoning of Badals, seeks explanation from Hoshiarpur judge

HC ASKED THE JUDGE HOW PARKASH SINGH BADAL, WHO WAS NOT ARRAYED AS A PARTY IN ORIGINAL PLAINT, WAS MADE THE PARTY

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday stayed summoning orders of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, his son and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal and senior SAD vice-president Daljit Singh Cheema in an alleged case of forgery and sought an explanation from a judicial officer posted at Hoshiarpur district court in this regard.

The officer has been asked to explain as to why the summoning order has been passed by taking the facts from a rejected amended complaint, which was not allowed to be taken on record on an earlier occasion.

The HC also asked the judge how Parkash Singh Badal, who was not arrayed as a party in the original complaint, was made party and what prompted the court to add sections of cheating and criminal conspiracy.

On November 4, a court of additional chief judicial magistrate, Hoshiarpur, had summoned Badals and Cheema in a 2009 case of alleged forgery and cheating filed by one Balwant Singh Khera. In February 2009, Khera had filed the complaint alleging forgery by way of submitting forged document and using it as genuine. He alleged that the SAD possessed two constitutions – one that it had submitted with the Gurdwara Election Commission and the other with the Election Commission (EC). He had contested that originally, a religious party, the SAD had given a false undertaking to the EC in 1989, that it had amended its constitution to incorporate the principles of socialism and secularism to fulfil the constitutional obligation for recognition as a political party.

The HC has stayed the November 4 order of summoning and sought response from the state by April 28, 2020, by when the officer too has been asked to submit a report.

Badal, Sukhbir and Cheema had approached the court seeking quashing of the 2009 complaint and the summoning order in which they were asked to face the trial for cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery, submitting forged document and using forged document as genuine.

The court was told that Badal was not even arrayed as an accused in the original complaint filed in February 2009 as per the record of amended application the complainant had filed before the court, which too was dismissed in 2017.

The court of justice Arvind Sangwan was told that the trial court has proceeded on the basis of the rejected amended complaint, without looking into the fact that it was never permitted or allowed to be taken on record. The entire evidence is to be looked into on the basis of original complaint, in which Parkash Singh was not even a party.

The court was also told that there is no document on record to prove that any forgery was committed, while submitting declaration before the EC.