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Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008
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Court refuses to stay Amarinder’s expulsion

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday refused to stay the September 10 resolution of the Punjab Assembly through which it had unseated former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh after a special committee of the House indicted him for corruption and irregularities in granting exemptions while transferring 32.1 acres to a private developer during his tenure at the helm.

Handing down an interim order, the Bench comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Ajay Tewari that admitted the petition filed by Capt. Singh said that stay on expulsion would “amount to grant of final relief without hearing the other side”.

The case would now come up for hearing before a Division Bench of the Court on December 1.

The Court, which had reserved its judgment after the last hearing on Friday, issued notice to the Punjab Assembly through its Secretary to file a reply by October 31. Capt. Singh would be allowed to submit a rejoinder by November 15.

Both sides were granted permission to submit any other document by November 30.

However, the Court stayed operation of that part of the Assembly resolution which directed the State Vigilance Bureau to subject the former Chief Minister to “custodial interrogation” after registering a case.

Capt. Singh is currently in Britain for a medical check-up.

The Court order said, “We are prima facie of the view that resolution of the Assembly about the need for custodial interrogation cannot be treated as binding. Accordingly, by way of interim order, we direct that there will be a stay on the direction that it is essential to have custodial interrogation.”

“We, however, make it clear that this interim order does not prevent investigating officer to conduct custodial interrogation in accordance with law if considered otherwise necessary,” it added.

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