The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Haryana government to furnish records relating to the constitution of the S N Dhingra Commission of Inquiry for probing the grant of land licences to some companies including that of Robert Vadra's in Gurgaon during former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's tenure.
The division bench of justices A K Mittal and Ramendra Jain yesterday gave the direction on a petition filed by Hooda.
The former chief minister has challenged the constitutional validity of the one-man Commission, alleging that the Manohar Lal Khattar government had issued a notification on May 14, 2015 on the panel's constitution without there being any reference to the state cabinet, which was mandatory in terms of provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952.
Hooda alleged that the orders to set up the probe panel were prompted by malice "as Khattar wanted to pursue his party's (BJP) political vendetta".
Former Union minister and advocate Kapil Sibal and former Haryana Advocate General Hawa Singh Hooda argued on behalf of Hooda.
Haryana Advocate General B R Mahajan assured the court that the Dhingra Commission report will not be published till December 8, when the case would come up for another hearing.
Khattar had on November 19 said the report will be made public in the next session of the state Assembly. The Commission had submitted the 182-page report to the Chief Minister on August 31.
The panel was set up to probe issues concerning the grant of license(s) for developing commercial colonies by the Department of Town and Country Planning to some entities in Sector 83, Gurgaon, including mutation of land deal between M/S Skylight Hospitality owned by Robert Vadra, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, and realty major DLF.
The Rs 58-crore deal is related to 3.5 acre land in Gurgaon's Shikohpur village which was sold by Vadra to DLF.
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