HC reprieve for Amar Singh

The Allahabad High Court has ordered that the probe report on the land allocated to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh be placed before the Supreme Court.

The Allahabad High Court has ordered that the probe report on the land allocated to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh be placed before the Supreme Court.

A Division Bench in Lucknow, comprising Justices S N Shukla and Shiv Charan Sharma asked the government — which conducted the probe — not to take any action against Singh for now. The directive has come as a temporary relief for the SP leader. On June 2, a Bench comprising Justices U K Dhaon and Sabihul Hasnain had directed the state government to produce before the court all documents related to the plot allotted to Singh during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime.

In 1994, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) had cleared a 35 sq m plot for Singh under the economically weaker section (EWS) category (applicable to those whose annual income was less than Rs 12,000). Later, the plot was swapped with another plot (no 2/13) of 354.25 sq m in the posh Vipul Khand area. The Mayawati government, by issuing a Government Order on April 21, had asked Principal Secretary (Urban Development) S R Lakha to probe the matter. This was challenged by Singh in a writ petition filed before the Lucknow Bench in the last week of May.

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The petitioner’s lawyer and former Advocate General Virendra Bhatia had challenged Lakha’s status for probing the matter as “he himself was facing inquiries in different cases”. Bhatia had also argued that a related case is pending before the Supreme Court, therefore it was not justified to hear it in the High Court.

Representing the state, Chief Standing Council D K Upadhyay had apprised the Bench that the inquiry had been completed and report submitted before the petition was filed. Therefore, the petition was liable to be dismissed, Upadhyay had pleaded.