Coal block scam: Special public prosecutor, judge appointed

New Delhi On the lines of the 2G scam case the Supreme Court on Friday appointed senior counsel RS Cheema as the special public prosecutor in the case relating to alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks before a special CBI judgeA bench of Chief Justice RM Lodha Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph also approved the appointment of Sessions Judge Bharat Parashar as a judge of the special Central Bureau of Investigation CBI court that will hear the case on a daytoday basisParashars name was recommended by the Delhi High CourtThe court gave the authorities two week time to issue notification for the setting of special court to be presided over by Parashar and the appointment of Cheema who practices in the Punjab and Haryana High Court as special public prosecutorThe court also directed that all the matters pending in different court relating to coal blocks allocation scam would stand transferred to the special courtThe apex court July 18 had decided to set up a special court to try cases arising from coal block allocation scam and also appoint a special public prosecutor to lead the prosecution cases before the special court The chief justice of the Delhi High Court had been asked to name a judge to preside over the special courtInitially the court discussed a couple of names but all had to be given up following reservation from one quarter or the otherAt this stage Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh suggested the name of Cheema The court then asked Singh to ascertain if Cheema was willing to take up the assignment and his name was finalised after his consentAllowing an application by the Income Tax department the court directed the CBI to share information relating to recovery of some cash from an office of Hindalco an Aditya Birla companyThe court also directed the CBI to file an update report on its investigation into criminality dimension of the coal block allocation scam and file the report by Aug 25 as it directed the listing of the matter on Sep 1The court meanwhile dismissed an application by advocate ML Sharma seeking a CBI probe against Congress president Sonia Gandhi former prime minister Manmohan Singhs principal secretary TKA Nair former power secretaries VS Sampath and HS Brahma and former home secretary RK Singh to ascertain their role if any in the scam and the acquisition of tribal landSampath the power secretary in 2008 is at present the chief election commissioner He was succeeded in 2009 by Brahma who is one of the two election commissionersThe court opted for appointing the special public prosecutor to put in place a mechanism so that it could know how objective were the conclusions based on the material before the investigating agencyThe court thought of taking the route of special public prosecutors to vet the CBI reports as CBI had resisted the move to send all its reports to the Central Vigilance Commission for scrutiny where it was filing the closure report or there were differences within the agency on the course to be adopted in a particular case