Supreme Court To Reconstitute Bench On Coal Block Allocation Cases After Justice KV Viswanathan's Recusal

Supreme Court Judge Justice KV Viswanathan today (January 16) recused from the hearing the batch of pleas relating to the 2014 Coal Block Allocation cases. The bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna, Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan was hearing the applications filed by the Enforcement Directorate in ML Sharma Coal Scam case. Justice Viswanathan revealed that he had appeared as an advocate in the related cases of Common Cause And Ors Versus Union Of India and Girish Kumar Suneja v. Central Bureau of Investigation. "There is some difficulty, my brother (Justice Viswanathan) was probably appearing as a counsel in some of the matters" " the CJI said " Both in Common Cause and Girish Suneja, exactly canvassing the normal hierarchy...though this is the ED, I studied the application but I told the Chief Justice" Justice Viswanathan added further. Notably, the Common Cause Case was a connected matter in the main Coal Block Allocation Case where the Court in 2014 held the allocation of Coal Blocks between 1993 and 2011 (except those made through competitive bidding) as arbitrary and invalid. During the hearing of the cases, an order was passed in July, 2014, para 10 was to the following effect:"We also make it clear that any prayer for stay or impeding the progress in the investigation/trial can be made only before this Court and no other Court shall entertain the same.”In 2017, the Apex Court in Girish Suneja refused to modify the earlier order directing that prayer towards stay/impeding the progress of investigation/trial in Coal Block Allocation cases be made only before the Supreme Court. Here the Court was considering the interpretation of Paragraph 10 of the ML Sharma Case. The CJI, while directing to reconstitute a fresh bench without Justice Viswanathan, also framed the following issue for consideration : "whether or not the direction that the filing parties seeking a stay of trial will not be entitled to invoke the procedure prescribed in the Code of Criminal Procedure but will have to file a Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution." A similar issue was raised in another pending SLP titled Potluri Vara Prasad & Ors. v. Directorate of Enforcement, where the bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan called for a response from the ED on the issue as to whether the bar imposed by paragraph 10 of the Coal Block Scam Case, is applicable to orders passed on complaints under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as well.Senior Advocates Maninder Singh and RS Cheema appearing for investigation authorities informed the bench that nearly 45 complaints under the PMLA relating to the Coal Block Scam are pending, for which the trial will likely go on. In the Supreme Court about 20 cases are pending concerning PMLA offences under the Coal Block Scam case. The CJI directed the constitution of a fresh 3 Judges bench and ordered the Registry to prepare a detailed list of the pending SLPs before the Court filed in light of Paragraph 10 of the Coal Block Scam Case. " The Registry to prepare a compilation of the list of all the cases where the SLPs have been preferred under Article 136 of the Constitution in terms of the judgement of this Court in both 2014 and 2017. All matters will be listed before a bench (3 Judges) constituted in the week commencing 10 of February 2025." During the hearings, Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari highlighted that the new provisions under the BNSS Act ( replacing the CrPC) require the Court to hear the accused even before issuing the summoning order. Bhandari was referring to S. 223 of the BNSS which states : "(1) A Magistrate having jurisdiction while taking cognizance of an offence on complaint shall examine upon oath the complainant and the witnesses present, if any, and the substance of such examination shall be reduced to writing and shall be signed by the complainant and the witnesses, and also by the Magistrate:Provided that no cognizance of an offence shall be taken by the Magistrate without giving the accused an opportunity of being heard; " He thus highlighted that because of the direction under paragraph 10 of the Coal Block Scam Case, this is also another issue required for consideration. However, Singh interrupted saying " That has nothing to do with this my lords. BNSS applies to those cases filed after 1st July 2024. These cases are not coming in this(BNSS)." Notably, all three new criminal laws Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam(BSA) take effect only July 1, 2024.Case Details : MANOHAR LAL SHARMA Versus THE PRINCIPAL SECRETARY AND ORS. W.P.(Crl.) No. 120/2012 Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court To Reconstitute Bench On Coal Block Allocation Cases After Justice KV Viswanathan's Recusal

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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