Coal scam: SC rejects former CBI chief Ranjit Sinha's plea to recall its order

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea of former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha seeking recall of its earlier order constituting an SIT to probe the allegations of prima facie scuttling the investigation in coal scam cases.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said there were no reasons to recall the order of January 23 this year in which the apex court had observed that a prima facie case was "definitely" made out for probing allegations of abuse of authority by Sinha when he was the CBI Director.

"We do not find any reasons to recall our order. The application is dismissed," the bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri, said.

The apex court had on January 23 ordered constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the allegations of "abuse of authority" prima facie committed by Sinha to scuttle the probe in coal block allocation cases.

It had said that the present CBI Director would head the SIT which would look into the report of apex court-appointed panel headed by M L Sharma, a former Special Director of the agency, which had prima facie found that Sinha tried to favour some people allegedly responsible for irregularities while in office.

Senior counsel Vikas Singh, appearing for Sinha, sought recall of the order, saying the former CBI chief was not given the opportunity to respond to allegations based on names mentioned in the visitors' diary at his residence which indicated he had met some high-profile accused in the scam.

"This diary cannot be an admissible evidence to order an inquiry by either M L Sharma or an SIT," he said, adding, "the opportunity to respond to the diary was never given to me (Sinha)".

To this, the bench said, "The January 23 order was not based on the diary. It was based on M L Sharma's report."

Singh, however, argued that Sinha was not even provided the report of M L Sharma on the basis of which an SIT probe has been ordered by the apex court.

He referred to the alleged Sahara-Birla payoff case and the apex court's order in the matter, saying the court had not considered diary entries as cogent material to order a probe.

He argued that in the alleged Sahara-Birla payoff case, the apex court had dismissed the plea seeking investigation in the matter without even issuing notice to anyone whose names had cropped up in the alleged entires.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Common Cause, opposed Sinha's contention and said that the former CBI chief was given due opportunity to respond to the allegations.

Bhushan alleged that Sinha had tried to scuttle the probe and met some high-profile accused who were under investigation in coal scam cases.

In its January 23 order, the apex court had made it clear that it was not expressing any opinion on the merit of the allegations levelled by the petitioner or on the contents of the report prepared by the M L Sharma panel.

The bench had said that CBI Director may take assistance of two officers of the agency after duly intimating the court and also take the Chief Vigilance Commissioner into confidence in respect of the investigation.

It had also said that special public prosecutor for coal scam cases, senior advocate R S Cheema, would assist the CBI Director and his team on legal issues related to the matter.

The apex court had earlier appointed a committee headed by M L Sharma and former central information commissioner to look into the allegations against Sinha. Sharma had submitted a report on March 4 last year.

The court had on July 12 last year reserved the order on the issue after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the bench that the panel headed by Sharma had held that Sinha's meetings with some high-profile accused in the case prima facie indicated an attempt to influence the probe.

Rohatgi, who had only received an initial report of the panel for perusal on condition of confidentiality, said it found that the visitors' diary at Sinha's residence was genuine.

However, he had said the correctness of entries in the diary could only be ascertained by the court on the basis of evidence produced.

The panel had held Sinha's meetings with the accused as "completely inappropriate".

On December 7, 2015, the apex court had ordered handing over the original visitors' diary at the former CBI director's residence the Sharma panel.