Court issues notices to estate officers on Ashok Khemka's petition

The Punjab and Haryana high court has issued contempt of court notices to estate officers of Bahadurgarh and Palwal in Haryana, on a petition filed by Ashok Khemka for not considering his application for allotment of plot in serving government employees category.

Khemka was in the media spotlight in the recent past for cancelling the mutation of a 3.5-acre plot at Shikohpur village in Gurgaon sold by son-in-law of Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Robert Vadra, to DLF in 2008. He had objected to the sanction of the mutation by the assistant consolidation officer who he claimed had no authority to do so.

Alleging serious prejudice against him by the concerned officers, Khemka had submitted that he had applied for one kanal plot of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) in Bahadurgarh and Palwal in the category of serving government employees. However, due to lapses on the part of concerned authorities his case was considered under the general category.

The division bench headed by justice Jasbir Singh issued the contempt notices yesterday to the estate officers for furnishing misleading information to the authorities about Khemka's application not being in the  category for serving government employees, which led to his name being considered against the general category.

In the meantime, the officers have been directed by the bench, to take remedial steps to rectify the mistake. The state's government's counsel informed the bench that there were still two plots vacant at Bahadurgarh and one at Palwal in the category for serving government employees.

Meanwhile, the floodgates seem to swung wide open regarding news reports on Robert Vadra and his real estate deals.