Former Punjab chief secy wins legal battle against state

Former Punjab chief secy wins legal battle against state
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, NOV 30: The Parkash Singh Badal government of Punjab today suffered a major legal setback when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of its former chief secretary V.K. Khanna, who had been prosecuted for referring CBI corruption cases, including allotment of land at Mohali, to the Punjab Cricket Association.

A division bench comprising Justice M. Jagannadha Rao and Justice U.C. Banerjee upheld the Punjab and Haryana High Court order that had quashed the proceedings initiated against the officer by the state government.

Dismissing two appeals, one by the state government and the other by Badal himself, Justice Banerjee said: ``We are in concurrence with the high court order.''

While passing strictures against senior officers of the state government and Chief Minister Badal, the HC had observed that for referring corruption cases to the CBI, Khanna deserved ``a pat and not persecution''.

Khanna, the senior-most serving IAS officer of the state, told PTI that he stood vindicated by the apex court's verdict. He is at present serving as the chairman of the Inland Waterways Authority of India.

Khanna, on written orders of then Congress chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal just before the elections in February 1997, had referred two cases to the CBI for investigation.

The first case related to the alleged accumulation of assets disproportionate to known sources of income by Bikramjeet Singh, now Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.

The second one was over the alleged ``fraudulent'' transfer of prime urban public land measuring about 20 acres to the Punjab Cricket Association. The land belonging to the government was transferred by then sports secretary I.S. Bindra, allegedly at his own level without the mandatory approval of the Council of Ministers, the complaint to the CBI said.

The CBI, after carrying out the preliminary investigations and obtaining approval of the Central Government, registered FIRs in the two cases for further probe.

When the Akali-BJP coalition government took over after the 1997 elections, it issued a charge-sheet to Khanna regarding the manner in which the cases were referred to the CBI.

Khanna then approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which quashed the proceedings initiated against him by the state government. The government appealed against the high court order in the Supreme Court.