India, Feb. 26 -- The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday set aside criminal charges against Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in a case related to irregularities in the re-allotment of an institutional plot to the company in Panchkula. CBI charge sheeted only Hooda and AJL's managing director, Motilal Vora.

Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya said that Hooda's 2005 decision to re-allot the plot, which had originally been given to AJL in 1982 for the establishment of the office of National Herald and publication of a Hindi newspaper, was unanimously ratified by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) ex-post facto in 2006. It added that no court has declared the decision illegal ...