Chandigarh, May 16 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday dismissed a bunch of pleas challenging framing of charges and summoning of some persons as additional accused, by a special CBI court in 2020, in the controversial Manesar land deal involving former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

With this order, the bench of justice Manjari Nehru Kaul has paved the way for resumption of trial, which was stayed in December 2020 by the high court, acting on the petitions from some bureaucrats and builders. Hooda, himself, had not challenged the trial court order.

In December, 2020, the special CBI court, Panchkula had ordered framing of charges against 32 persons, including Hooda, a 1976-batch retired IAS officer and principal sec...