High Court issues notice to Jairam Ramesh in defamation case

A week after former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal filed a defamation case against senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, the Himachal pradesh High Court on Monday issued notice to him.

A week after former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal filed a defamation case against senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, the Himachal pradesh High Court on Monday issued notice to him.

Jairam Ramesh, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, had during a press conference in New Delhi past month, accused Dhumal of violating laws in the allotment of 16 acres land in Dharamshala to build a cricket stadium in 2002.

Additional registrar general of Himachal high court, Pyar Chand, on Monday admitted the case and issued notice to the Congress leader. He listed the matter for further order on November 18.

Ramesh in the press conference, had alleged that the irregularities in land allotment to Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), lead by Dhumal’s parliamentarian son Anurag Thakur, caused a loss of Rs 100 crore to the state exchequer.

“Dhumal led cabinet approved the grant of land to HPCA for 99 years but changed the lease amount to a token rate of Re.1 per month,” he had said.

Dhumal had earlier said that the matter was sub-judice and that that the allotment was done in a transparent manner by the cabinet and there was no illegality or irregularity.