Chandigarh, Feb. 26 -- In a major relief to two-time former Haryana chief minister and current Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday quashed criminal charges against him and Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of the National Herald, in the alleged illegal re-allotment of a plot in Panchkula. Allowing separate petitions filed by Hooda and AJL, the bench of justice Tribhuvan Dahiya held that the material on record did not disclose even a prima facie case against the petitioners and there was no ground to proceed against them. "Continuation of prosecution will be an abuse of the process of court...the petitioners stand discharged," the judge observed while setting aside the April 16, 2021 order of a special CBI court that had framed charges under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The ruling marks a significant legal victory for the Congress veteran, who has consistently denied wrongdoing and described the case as politically motivated. With the high court setting aside the framing of charges, the judgment, for now, effectively brings to a close one of the most high-profile cases against Hooda. The case, first registered by the state vigilance bureau in 2016, was taken over by the CBI during the BJP regime in 2017. At the time of registration of the FIR, late Moti Lal Vora was the chairman of AJL, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi were among the shareholders. The National Herald newspaper was launched in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister. The CBI had chargesheeted Hooda and AJL in December 2018 in connection with the re-allotment of a 3,360 square metre institutional plot (C-17) in Sector 6, Panchkula. According to CBI, the plot was originally allotted to AJL in 1982 by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), but was resumed in 1992 after construction was not completed for 10 years. Appeals filed by AJL in 1995 and 1996 were dismissed. However, when Hooda became the chief minister in 2005, he allowed the re-allotment of the plot, now worth multiple crores, to AJL at the original 1982 rate of Rs.59 lakh. Thus, causing financial loss to the public exchequer. Rejecting CBI's contentions, the court observed that charges had been framed without examining the material facts. It held that passing an order against the policies, guidelines or opinions and in ignorance of any fact cannot be a basis to attribute dishonest intention to the accused. It further observed that the re-allotment decision had been unanimously ratified by the competent authority and duly implemented, and had neither been declared illegal nor cancelled by any court or tribunal. "The allotment is valid as on date. the AJL after payment of re-allotment price as well as the extension fee has raised construction, and has been given occupation certificate (in 2014)," the court noted, adding that even government auditors had dropped objections regarding any financial loss. The court was also critical of the basis of the FIR, noting that it was registered on a "source report" rather than a complaint by the authority concerned. "It is unfathomable as to how the investigating agency can consider the re-allotment of plot unlawful on its own, and proceed to register a criminal case on that basis. This is absolutely illegal, and far from any procedure known to law," it remarked. The court said merely because statements of some officers of the authority or government claimed that re-allotment of the plot at current rates would have fetched more money to the authority, it cannot form a basis to contend that any loss had actually been caused. "The statements are without any factual basis. To claim on this premise that the re-allotment caused any loss to the authority is fictional, which cannot afford any ground to frame charge for commission of the alleged offences," the court further said....