Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Thursday reserved its order on the maintainability of a writ petition filed by a local activist seeking a probe into allegations of irregularities against Robert Vadra relating to his land transactions with real estate major DLF in Haryana.
The order was reserved by a division bench comprising Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Virendra Kumar Dixit after hearing the submissions of the Centre`s counsel and the petitioner`s lawyer.
Appearing on behalf of the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasharan submitted that the writ was based on newspaper reports which cannot be treated as true.
The ASG contended that the petition was liable to be dismissed as it was based on hearsay and the petitioner has no locus standi to file such a petition.
The PMO has already submitted an affidavit to the bench following a notice to file its objections to the petition by local activist Nutan Thakur who sought a direction from the court for an inquiry into alleged irregular land dealings between Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, and DLF in Haryana.
Activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal had levelled allegations against Vadra.
On behalf of Nutan Thakur, her lawyer Ashok Pandey said that as the matter relates to high-up, only the Prime Minister`s Office would be able to conduct an inquiry.
He filed a rejoinder on the objection filed by the PMO office stating that if the matter pertains to two individuals why it was "intevening".
The petition was filed by Nutan Thakur on October 9.
The petitioner had sought a direction from the court that Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister`s Office decide on her representation on the merit of facts with regard to conducting an inquiry in the matter as presented by the petitioner about allegations of financial improprity made by Kejriwal and lawyer Prashat Bhushan against Vadra.
The PMO had said the allegations about irregular land dealings between Vadra and real estate major DLF in Haryana "appear to be false, based on heresay and vexatious".
In an affidavit to the court, the PMO also said the petition filed by local activist seeking a direction for a probe into the land dealings Vadra had with DLF in Haryana was based on media reports about purely commercial transactions, which had been countered by both Vadra and DLF.
The PMO affidavit came in response to a notice issued by the bench on October 11 to the Centre listing objections to the maintainability of the petition filed by Thakur.
PTI
