SC appoints former ASG, senior advocate to represent ED in coal scam case

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh and Advocate Rajesh Batra have been appointed as the Special Public Prosecutors for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case pertaining to coal block allocation.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court bench led by the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, has appointed Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh and Advocate Rajesh Batra as the Special Public Prosecutors for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case pertaining to coal block allocation.

In the last hearing, Senior advocate R S Cheema, who was appointed SPP in 2014 by the top court, has sought to be relieved from the responsibility citing his age and shortage of law officers assisting him. Subsequently, Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, had suggested new names including Maninder Singh and Rajesh Batra to the court.

However, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for an NGO, had said the court should go by the original names given by Cheema and not be swayed away by the objection of the government. He said the SPP should be independent of the government.

The bench said Maninder Singh has already resigned from the post of Additional Solicitor General and now he is independent. The court said that the names suggested by Mehta have already been finalised.

The top court in 2014 had quashed 214 coal blocks allocated by the Centre between 1993 and 2010 after taking note of PILs, including one filed by Advocate M L Sharma, the main petitioner in the coal scam case, and had ordered a trial by a special CBI Judge.