Coal scam: R S Cheema is special public prosecutor

The court of additional sessions judge Bharat Parashar will act as the special court for coal scam cases

The Supreme Court on Friday appointed senior advocate R S Cheema as the special public prosecutor for the trial of coal allocation scam cases. The apex court also stated the court of additional sessions judge Bharat Parashar will act as the special court for these cases. Parashar was nominated by the Delhi high court here, following a request by the Supreme Court last week.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India R M Lodha asked the competent authorities to issue notifications in this regard. All documents related to the investigations in the coal allocations will be provided to the prosecutor. All cases pending in other courts will also now be dealt with by the special court. This will speed up the trial, which will be conducted on a day-to-day basis.

The income tax department, which wants to conduct further inquiries in the scandal involving top mining companies, will be allowed access to the documents seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the court clarified.

The Supreme Court has also demanded a report on September 1 about the action taken by the authorities in setting up the special court. The Central government and the Delhi government have to issue necessary notifications in these cases, which fall under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code.

Friday's order was the finale of the two-year old effort of the Supreme Court to prod the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and the tax authorities to open the can of worms in coal block allocations over the past decade when the United Progressive Alliance was in power. As many as 64 mining companies faced the heat and 14 First Information Reports have been filed. At one stage, the court even urged the CBI to go ahead fearlessly and not be a "caged parrot" of those in power.

It passed several orders on two public interest petitions moved by Common Cause, a non-governmental organisation, and lawyer M L Sharma.