The Supreme Court has issued notices to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Associated Journals Limited (AJL) – which publishes the Congress newspaper National Herald — on the CBI’s petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order giving them clean chit in alleged wrongful allotment of land to AJL in Panchkula.“Issue notice, returnable in the month of July, 2026,” a Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said in its May 4 order after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the CBI, pointed out certain ‘flaws’ in the high court’s order.They contended that the high court failed to appreciate the evidence that made out offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code.In its February 25 order, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ruled in favour of Hooda and AJL, saying, “…the material brought on record does not even prima facie disclose the existence of essential ingredients of the alleged offences against the petitioners (Hooda and AJL), and there is no ground to proceed against them. Continuation of prosecution will be an abuse of the process of the Court.”Justice Tribhivan Dahiya of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had set aside the trial court’s order framing charges in the case and dismissed proceedings against the accused.The high court had said that “passing an order against the policies, guidelines or opinions and in ignorance of any fact cannot be a basis to attribute dishonest intention to the accused.”Following the high court’s verdict, a CBI Special Court in Haryana had on March 27 closed the case against Hooda and AJL. Thereafter, a Special Court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Haryana had also closed the ED’s case related to plot re-allotment.The ED alleged that the AJL had secured the Panchkula plot at a concessional rate of Rs 59.39 lakh at 1982 prices and subsequently obtained loans worth Rs 72.57 crore by projecting it as “untainted property”. These funds were allegedly used to create further assets by pledging or mortgaging them with a bank.Plot number C-17 in Sector 6, Panchkula, was allotted to AJL for starting a newspaper on a no-profit, no-loss basis at a concessional rate of Rs 91 per square metre. As no construction was carried out within the stipulated time, the plot was resumed, and all appeals were dismissed in 1996.After Hooda became Haryana Chief Minister, the plot was re-allotted in 2005 at old rates. The ED has alleged that this caused a loss of Rs 1.75 crore to the state exchequer.The CBI alleged that the accused Hooda, Moti Lal Vohra (since deceased) and the AJL conspired to misuse the official position in re-allotment of the plot and thereby caused wrongful loss to the state exchequer and wrongful gain to the AJL. Vora was the chairman of AJL and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were its shareholders at the time of registration of the FIR.Hooda, however, maintained that his decision was influenced by the legacy of AJL publications in the freedom struggle and that he acted after considering the request placed before him.