High court asks Haryana to produce Dhingra panel report on Sept 24

REPORT WAS SUMMONED ON EXCM HOODA’S PLEA CHALLENGING CONSTITUTION OF PANEL

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday asked the Haryana government to produce the Justice (retd) SN Dhingra Commission’s report before it on September 26.

The report was summoned on the petition of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, challenging the constitution of the panel.

The panel was set up in 2015 to probe allegations that laws were flouted in granting land licences in Gurugram during the Hoodaled Congress regime. Among the alleged beneficiary companies were one owned by Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

The report was summoned by high court bench of justice AK Mittal after a demand in this regard was made by senior advocate Kapil Sibal.

Appearing for the state, additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta had opposed the demand, contending that the report has to be tabled before the Vidhan Sabha and can’t be taken up by the court.

Later, the court sought the report in a sealed cover and said that it would decide on the next date of hearing whether it can be perused or not.

In his submissions, Sibal had argued that after the report was submitted, the BJP ministers have been making statements of sending the Congress leader to jail. It meant there is something adverse in the report against the petitioner, he said adding that Hooda was not given an opportunity of hearing by the commission as mandated in the law. Hence, the court peruse the report and decide on it.

The court was also told that no preliminary inquiry was made by the government. Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar did not have ‘material’ evidence before him when he decided to order the commission probe on May 13, 2015, which, he said, is a prerequisite in ordering such a probe.

Mehta, on the other hand, defended the government action, saying the CM passed the order after considering a report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), news reports on CAG regarding Vadra; chargesheet submitted to the governor by Indian National Lok Dal etc.

The Dhingra panel submitted its report on August 31 last year.