National Herald case: Congress hails HC decision

The Congress on Tuesday hailed as "in the party's favour" the Delhi High Court decision quashing the lower court summons to produce some documents and the party's balance sheet in the National Herald case.

"We want to inform in a balanced way that the high court has today (Tuesday) reversed the trial court decision in the National Herald case," senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.

"The high court has said that the trial court order in favour of (BJP leader Subramaniam) Swamy is legally erroneous and not sustainable for a variety of reasons," he added.

Earlier, the trial court had partially allowed Swamy's petition for production of documents in the case.

Citing the points made by the high court, the Congress leader said: "Swamy has been asking in a blanket and sweeping manner for documents."

"He has to first establish the necessity, the relevance and the need for a particular document and that necessity needs to be established document wise and not in a sweeping way," he said.

Discussing the second reason for quashing the lower court's decision, Singhvi said, "Lower court decision was given after without giving full opportunity to us (Congress) to represent our side, which the HC found that it was not given."

"For these reasons the HC decision has gone 100 per cent in our favour and has reversed the lower court order," he added.

Congress leaders remarks came after the High Court on Tuesday quashed an order of a trial court summoning some documents and 2010-11 balance sheet of the Congress in the National Herald case where Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi are among the accused.

--IANS

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