TNN Aug 4, 2012, 02.12AM IST
CHANDIGARH: Apparently not happy over the failure of
Punjab government in providing infrastructure to Justice Kuldip Singh
panel that was appointed to look into land grab cases across Punjab,
the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday directed the state to
provide the required facilities within 15 days.
Division bench headed by
Justice Jasbir Singh of the HC has also made it clear that in case of
non-compliance of the said orders, secretary in the department of
home and justice, Punjab, should appear in person before the court.
When the matter came up before the HC on Friday, the
bench questioned the Punjab government counsel on the delay in
providing the infrastructure to the panel, in the absence of a stay
order from the Supreme Court.
On May 29, HC had directed to constitute a panel to
probe allegations of illegal possession of forest and village
common/government land by VVIPs including politicians, IAS, IPS and
others in the entire Punjab. Retired supreme court judge, Justice
Kuldeep Singh, was appointed as head of the panel. While issuing
directions, HC had set a deadline of 30
days for the Punjab government to provide necessary
infrastructure and staff for the tribunal.
According to the orders, the tribunal would empower
to examine all records and if required, may seek additional time to
complete the probe. Initially, scope of the tribunal proposed to
probe the illegal possessions of village common land/forest land by
high-ups in the periphery of Chandigarh but later, HC clubbed all
cases pending before the HC and expanded the scope bringing illegal
possession of land in the entire state under its purview.
Around 60 high-ups including chief minister Parkash
Singh Badal and DGP Sumedh Singh Saini are allegedly in possession of
government/public land.
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