Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court, here today, set aside the plea of the HPCA to implead Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and three government officials in a land row case.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmed Mir and Justice Kuldip Singh observed, “We, however, wonder why the petitioners have filed an application for arraying non-applicants as party-respondents in terms of Order 1 Rule 10 CPC and that is also drafted on November 20, 2013, and filed on November 22, 2013 along with the application for leave to amend, whereas the state had withdrawn its order on November 19, 2013, therefore application is misconceived.”

The bench, however, allowed the HPCA to amend its writ petition within three weeks relating to the observations of the state registrar of cooperative societies. The court will next hear the case March 22.

Kangra district police chief Balbir Singh Thakur, Kangra director general Sanjay Kumar, and Kangra deputy commissioner C Paulrasu, were the other respondents in the court. Earlier on January 4 Court has reserved its order.