HC pulls up Haryana govt for favouring Gandhi family

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday pulled up the Haryana government for flouting laws to grant 8-acre land toRajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in Gurgaon.

Hearing a petition filed by several petitioners, the high court said it was clear that the state government favoured the trust run by the Gandhi family by exempting the land from the process while acquiring land for development of Sectors 58-63 in Gurgaon’s Ullahawas village.

During the hearing of the petitions, it was revealed that the state government released land in favour of Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka are its trustees.

Hearing the petitions on allotment of land to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust, a division bench comprising Justices Jasbir Singh and Augustine George Masih made strong observations.

The judges said the state had gone “berserk” in acquiring land and warned that “courts are not helpless”. The bench remarked that the state had argued the case for over a week, after which it had suddenly decided to reconsider the acquisition.

The bench said, “When you are caught red-handed, you are trying to escape. We cannot tolerate what you are doing with the common man. This has to be stopped. We are shocked at the sad state of affairs. Be rational, be fair to everybody.”

The Haryana government told the high court that it has set up a high-power committee to sort out the issues raised by the landowners.

The case comes up for hearing again on Tuesday.

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