Do I need to close and dispose the SQLConnection explicitly?

SqlDataReader rdr = null;
con = new SqlConnection(objUtilityDAL.ConnectionString);
using (SqlCommand cmd = con.CreateCommand())
{
    try
    {
        if (con.State != ConnectionState.Open)
            con.Open();
        cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
        cmd.Parameters.Add(Parameter);
        cmd.CommandText = _query;
        rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        throw ex;
    }
}

In this above code, sqlconnection is opened inside the managed code. Hence, will the connection object be disposed automatically upon ending the scope of USING?

Solution

You should Dispose every temporary IDisposable instance you create manually, i.e. wrap them into using:

   // Connecton is IDisposable; we create it 
   //   1. manually - new ...
   //   2. for temporary usage (just for the query)
   using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(objUtilityDAL.ConnectionString)) {
     // Check is redundant here: new instance will be closed 
     con.Open();

     // Command is IDisposable
     using (SqlCommand cmd = con.CreateCommand()) {
       cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
       cmd.Parameters.Add(Parameter);
       cmd.CommandText = _query;

       // Finally, Reader - yes - is IDisposable 
       using (SqlDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader()) {
         // while (rdr.Read()) {...}
       }
     }   
   }

Please, notice that

   try {
     ...
   }
   catch (Exception ex) {
     throw ex;
  }

is at least redundant (it does nothing but rethrow the exception, while loosing stack trace) and that's why can be dropped out