Embattled former chief minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging his expulsion from the state Assembly.
CHANDIGARH: Embattled former chief minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging his expulsion from the state Assembly.
The petition by the Congress leader came up before a division bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and K S Ahluwalia which referred it to another bench.
In an unprecedented action, the Punjab Assembly had on Wednesday expelled Singh from the House following his indictment in a graft case and declared the seat vacant for holding by-election.
Singh, 66, was expelled after a nine-member committee of the Assembly headed by ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA Harish Rai Dhanda indicted him and three others in the Amritsar Improvement Trust land exemption case.
The House also asked vigilance bureau to launch criminal proceedings against the former chief minister and submit a report within two months.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday denied that his government was indulging "political vendetta" against his opponents and asserted that "it was a collective decision of the house."
"I assure you that there is no political vendetta against the opponents...Congress has made it a habit to call anything against them as vendetta politics of Akali Dal," the Shiromani Akali Dal chief said.
"Amarinder is facing graft charges in the Ludhiana City Centre scandal. There was no involvement of the SAD-BJP led coalition Government in the case at any level," Badal said.
He said "this scandal took place during the Amarinder regime and the Congress leader had himself ordered a probe by vigilance department to into the case following pressures from various quarters."
"The present regime did not order registration of case in LCC scandal against anyone...it was Vigilance department which in its report said that bunglings to the tune of Rs 1500 crore had taken place and it needs further probe," he claimed.
Badal claimed that Congress party's chief spokesman Bir Devinder Singh had raised it in the previous Assembly.
After a unanimous decision a special committee of the House was formed to look into the Amritsar land case during the previous regime, he said.
Badal also charged Amarinder with "tampering" the proceedings of the last Assembly for his "personal gains and interests."
"What was the need to tamper with the proceedings of the House if Amarinder was clean?" questioned the Chief Minister.
"Tampering the record of the last assembly proceedings with the consent of Amarinder is a blot on the Parliamentary system," he said.
The Congress had yesterday described Amarinder's expulsion as political vendetta of Akali Dal.
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