In a major relief to the Congress, Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside a trial court order summoning documents from Finance and Corporate Affairs Ministries and other agencies and the balance sheet of the Congress party for 2010-2011 in the National Herald case.
The trial court had summoned various documents from the Finance Ministry and other agencies and the party’s 2010-11 balance-sheet.
The High Court had earlier on April 18 reserved its order on the pleas of Congress leaders challenging summoning of documents from different ministries in connection with this case filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy.
Justice PS Teji set aside the trial court’s January 11 and March 11 orders saying they were “passed in a casual manner”, “without application of mind” and were “non-speaking” which makes the two decisions “ineffective, redundant and not sustainable in the eye of law and liable to be set aside”.
“The applications (for summoning of documents) were moved in a casual manner and the order passed on the same were also passed in a casual manner without due application of mind.
“The facts and circumstances mentioned above, non-issuance of notice to opposite side and impugned orders being non-speaking and without due application of mind as per the law laid down by the apex court, culminates into the impugned orders as ineffective, redundant and not sustainable in eye of law and liable to be set aside,” the court said.
A Delhi Court had on March 11 given its nod to Swamy’s plea, seeking the balance sheets of the Indian National Congress (INC) and Associated Journals Pvt Limited (AJL) for the purpose of investigation in this case.
Swamy had on March 1 approached a Delhi Court seeking summoning of certain documents related to the financial details of Congress, AJL and Young Indian Pvt. Ltd.
In an application moved before Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen, Swamy sought to summon the balance sheet, receipts, income and expenditure statements for assessment years 2010- 11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 of the INC, AJL and Young Indian Pvt. Ltd.
Besides the Congress president and her son, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda are the other accused in this case.
