The court also served the Punjab assembly a notice through its secretary asking it to reply on Singh’s disqualification.
Issues notice to assembly secretary seeking a reply to Amarinder’s disqualification CHANDIGARH: Former chief minister Amarinder Singh got partial relief from the Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday when his custodial interrogation in connection with the Amritsar land scam was stayed.
The court also served the Punjab assembly a notice through its secretary asking it to reply on Singh’s disqualification.
A division bench — comprising justices Adarsh Goel and Ajay Tewari — which had last week reserved its judgment on Singh’s plea seeking a stay on his disqualification from the assembly directed the secretary to file the reply on or before October 31.
The bench also directed Singh to file a rejoinder on or before November 15 and adjourned the case for final hearing on December 1. While restraining the Vigilance Bureau from undertaking custodial interrogation of Singh, the court allowed it to carry on with the investigation. The Vidhan Sabha, while disqualifying Singh for the rest of the term of the House last week, had suggested that Singh be subjected to custodial interrogation as he had taken anticipatory bail from the HC earlier.
Singh’s counsel however contended the legislature could only record the finding of guilt in case of contempt or breach of privilege of the House. In case of an offence taking place in the House, jurisdiction was a matter of debate. In any case, it could not record the finding of guilt. Such an action amounted to complete takeover of the functions of the judiciary, he said.
A tug of war has started between the Akali Dal and Congress leaders over the propriety of the case against Singh. The ruling party issued ads in the print media to explain the issue to the masses, which includes the sequence of events highlighting the role of senior Congress leader Bir Devinder Singh and the sacking of former Amritsar Improvement Trust chairman, Ratna protesting against exempting part of the scheme from acquisition. Congress MLA Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, said after earlier attempts to defame Singh boomeranged on the Akali Dal-BJP combine it was trying to defend itself by buying space for this campaign in newspapers.
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