Cong Bhawan row: Next date of hearing on Aug 21, party leaders move court

The controversy surrounding the Congress Bhawan here has already brought disrepute to the party cadre. Since the Congress men are adamant on their stand that they did not receive any summons from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to be a part of the hearing of the case as the bhawan was lying locked for the past many months, they have moved the court, requesting it to listen to their pleas also. The next hearing in the case is on August 21.

Talking to The Tribune, president of the District Congress Committee Sanjay Talwar said the other party, a private person, who claims to have purchased the property from its original owner, had moved the court for vacating the property.

“But for long, ever since the ceiling of the Congress Bhawan had fallen, it was locked and nobody was visiting the place. The court may have sent summons but since the premises was locked, the same were not received by anyone, following which the court issued Ex-Parte orders. The possession of the property is still with us, the other party may have won the case. Hence, we have finally moved the court to give us a hearing so that we can tell the court our pleas,” said Talwar, hoping to retain the property at the prime location in the city. He also agreed that contempt of court orders were issued against them by the court.

As per rough estimates, the Congress Bhawan in question is spread in around 400 sq yards and the current price of the property would be around Rs 3-4 crore.

A few days ago, the Congress men had gathered at one of the party leader’s house in Sarabha Nagar over the issue and the meeting was attended by Sanjay Talwar, PPCC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Surinder Dawar, Pawan Dewan, Gurdev Lapran, Kuldeep Singh and others in which the issue was discussed thoroughly. While some of the leaders wanted to sell it to the owner, who had got the court orders to vacate the bhawan, there were a few who wanted to “fight” the case in the court as it was a prestigious property of the party in which big leaders such as Indira Gandhi, Beant Singh and Sat Pal Mittal had held meetings in the past.