A day after receiving flak from the apex court in 2G case, CBI director Ranjit Sinha was on Tuesday again directed by the Supreme Court to respond to a plea accusing him of meeting the coal scam accused at his residence.
This was for the second day on Tuesday that the top court had acted tough against Sinha for his alleged alleged nexus with accused persons in various criminal cases.
The bench headed by chief justice of India R M Lodha issued notice to Sinha on the plea of petitioner NGO Common Cause's lawyer Prashant Bhushan who sought Sinha's recusal from the case and also demanded an SIT probe against him for allegedly protecting the accused in Coal scam.
It directed Sinha to explain his stand by September 19.
Another bench of the apex court, on Monday had sought his reply for protecting some accused in 2G case.
Bhushan referred to reports about the entry register at Sinha's residence containing names of "influential" persons allegedly involved in the coal scam. It accused him of scuttling the probe in the "high magnitude" coal scam case in which 20 FIRs for offences of corruption, cheating and criminal conspiracy have been lodged and two charge sheets filed in the trial court.
Meanwhile, the central government told the bench that it stood by its earlier statement that if the judgment in the coal scam is to be complied with, all allocations of coal blocks should be cancelled. Centre's senior-most law officer, attorney general Mukul Rohtagi, submitted that "only a pocket of some 46 units can be saved". The government was also against any committee to hear individual complaints by allottees. He rejected the idea of constitution of a committee saying it will delay the whole process further when the country is starving for energy.
He reiterated that 40 units, which are already in production may not be scrapped, along with six others which are about to be launched. Rohatgi also said that if all blocks are cancelled, Coal India should be allowed to take over active mines, or companies be allowed to continue production until the blocks are re-auctioned, in order to avoid supply disruptions. The bench, which had earlier declared some 218 coal block allocations between 1993 and 2010 illegal last month, heard arguments from all the parties and reserved the order.
During the course of arguments, the cousel for Coal Producers' Association -- senior advocate K K Venugopal – contended that the government was the wrongdoer and the allottees are being punished for no fault of their own.
The consequences of the cancellation will be disastrous as huge investments have already been made and there is a crippling shortage of coal and power in several parts of the country. Associations of coal producers, power producers and sponge iron producers wanted a three-member panel headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and an accountant as a member to hear their cases.
Advocate Harish Salve, representing the power producers, alleged that the petition was based on wrong and distorted facts, which have crept into the judgment. He pleaded for a panel to hear individual complaints.
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