Senior Counsel RS Cheema to continue as Special Public Prosecutor till June 30

Senior Counsel RS Cheema is set to continue as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) till June 30 to conduct trials on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case pertaining to the alleged irregularities in coal block allocations.

"On our request RS Cheema, senior counsel/Special Public Prosecutor has agreed to continue as a Special Public Prosecutor to conduct prosecution of the money laundering cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 pertaining to the coal block allocation matters till June 30, 2020. List this application in the first week of May 2020," stated an order passed on Friday by a Division Bench of the Supreme Court, comprising of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justice Deepak Gupta.

Earlier, the Bench had sought names of senior advocates for appointment as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) and junior lawyers for assistance to conduct trials on behalf of ED in the money laundering case relating to the alleged irregularities in coal block allocations.

The court's order came on the plea of senior advocate RS Cheema, who was appointed as SPP by the apex court in the year 2014 in the coal scam cases, seeking to be relieved as the prosecutor from money laundering cases.

The senior advocate had said that he would like to continue as CBI's SPP in the coal scam cases but wanted to be relieved from the responsibility of representing ED in money laundering cases.

Cheema contended that there was a shortage of law officers assisting him in such cases.

The top court had initially decided to appoint lawyer DP Singh as the SPP for the ED, but Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that he wanted time to discuss the appointment of SPP with senior lawyer Cheema who has been dealing with such cases as SPP.

Mehta had suggested the name of senior advocate Maninder Singh for SPP.

Earlier, the apex court had sought from CBI and ED the status of investigation and trial in the coal block allocation scam cases, which are being probed by the two agencies.

The top court was hearing pleas claiming scam in allocation of coal blocks.