In a major relief to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, the Delhi high court has set aside a verdict by a trial court order summoning top govt documents from ministry of Finance and Corporate Affairs among other agencies for 2010-11.
This means that in his case against the Gandhis, BJP lawmaker Subramanian Swamy is not entitled to any government documents, including the Congress party’s tax returns. In what is popularly known as the National Herald case, Swamy had accused the Gandhi’s of corruption by using a shell firm to illegally take over assets and properties worth over Rs. 5000 crore that belonged to a company Associate Journals ltd that published National Herald, a newspaper founded by Mr Gandhi’s great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru.
Earlier in February, the apex court had ruled out the need for the Gandhi’s to attend the trial but face a trial nonetheless. Also, in March, a trail court had ordered the possession of papers to Mr Swamy from ministries like Finance and Urban Development and the tax department that he said were relevant to the case. He wanted financial records of the Congress, Associated Journals Limited (which published the National Herald, defunct since 2008) and the Young Indian company, in which the Gandhis are stake-holders of more than three-fourth of the stakes.
The Gandhis today won their appeal as the Delhi high court overruled the trial court order.
