Supreme Court Revives CBI Challenge In Hooda–National Herald Land Case

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]The Supreme Court has issued notice on a CBI plea challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court's decision that gave a clean chit to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Associated Journals Limited, the publisher of the Congress newspaper National Herald, in the controversial Panchkula land allotment case. A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma sought responses after the CBI argued that AJL was illegally re-allotted a plot in Panchkula in 2005 at the original price despite objections that it should instead be auctioned at market rates. The agency alleges that Hooda, AJL, and others [music] conspired to misuse official position causing wrongful loss to the state exchequer and wrongful gain to AJL. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier ruled that the re-allotment was never declared illegal or canceled and questioned how the CBI could independently term it unlawful. The matter will now be heard in July reviving scrutiny over one of the long-running political land allocation controversies linked to the Congress party. To stay updated on what happens in the matter next, stay tuned to Live Law.