The Supreme Court today reserved its order on the appointment of the Special Public Prosecutor in cases before the Enforcement Directorate in the pleas challenging the allotment of 216 coal blocks to Public Sector Units and companies, to conduct coal mining in seven states.
The bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian said that Mr Maninder Singh has resigned from the post of Additional Solicitor General, whereas DP Singh has been appearing in several matters, including the Agustawestland deal and the Rs 9000 crore bank loan fraud involving businessman Vijay Mallya.
The bench was hearing the petitions filed by Manohar Lal Sharma and NGO Common Cause, challenging the licences granted to the PSUs and the private companies for 216 coal blocks for conducting the coal mining.
In 2014, Senior Advocate RS Cheema was appointed as SPP in the matters concerned, whereas now, he has requested to be relieved from the appointment, referring to a shortage of assistants and his age.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, submitted, “We suggest Senior Advocate Maninder Singh and Advocate Rajesh Batra”.
Over the inquiry of the Chief Justice, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, submitted, “The SPP should be independent of Centre and in such matters, the Court should not be swayed by the names proposed by the Centre”.
