Coal scam: SC judge recuses himself from hearing Jindal's plea

Another Supreme Court judge today recused himself from hearing industrialist Naveen Jindal's petition challenging framing of charges against him in a coal block allocation scam case.
The matter came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and L Nageswara Rao when Justice Rao recused himself from hearing the matter and directed it to be listed before an appropriate bench of which he is not part.
A bench of Justices J S Khehar and R Banumathi had on November 18 passed a recusal order while listing the plea after two weeks without making it clear as to which of the two judges wanted to recuse himself from the hearing the matter.

Besides Jindal, several other accused who are facing prosecution in separate coal scam cases, have also moved the apex court challenging framing of charges against them.
A special court, set up by the apex court to exclusively deal with coal scam-related cases, had framed charges against Jindal and others, including former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, in the Jharkhand's Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block allocation case.
They were put on trial by the special court for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust under IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the case.

Apart from Jindal, Rao and Koda, the special court had also ordered to put on trial former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and 11 others, who were chargesheeted by CBI in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and Gagan Sponge Iron Private Ltd in 2008.
All the accused have denied the allegations levelled against them by CBI in these cases.