New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside the trial court’s order summoning documents from the Ministries of Finance and Corporate Affairs and the balance sheet of the Congress for 2010-11 in the National Herald case, in which Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora and others are facing trial.

Mr Swamy has accused Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, the top two leaders of the Congress party, of corruption in what is known as the National Herald Case. He has accused them of using a shell firm to illegally take over assets and properties worth 300 million dollars that belonged to a company that published the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Mr Gandhi’s great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.

Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes (AICC General Secretary), Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda were summoned for the alleged offences under sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

In March, a Delhi court said Mr Swamy should be given papers he sought from ministries including 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.

The Congress has today won its appeal against that decision.