SC to hear CBI ex-chief Ranjit Sinha's plea on Mar 27

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on March 27 the plea of former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha seeking recall of an earlier order by which a Special Investigation Team was set up to probe allegation that he had scuttled investigation in some coal scam cases.
"We will hear it on March 27," a bench headed by Justice M B Lokur said when senior advocate Vikas Singh sought an early hearing of Sinha's plea.
The former director, in his plea, has alleged that the apex court had erred by adopting "double standards" in judging the alleged entries of vistors' diary, maintained at his official residence here.

It was alleged that certain accused and others had met Sinha at his official residence to affect the probe in certain coal scam cases.
He has drawn parallel in two cases, one relating to him and another to the Birla-Sahara diary case.
Singh, appearing for Sinha, had earlier told the court that the evidentiary value of the diary entries was far worse than the entries in diaries found on executives of Birla and Sahara groups revealing alleged payment of bribes.

The senior lawyer had drawn attention to the court's January 11 judgment rejecting to take cognisance of diary entries of corporate executives.

The apex court had on January 30 refused to modify its order on Sinha's plea that the SIT probe should not have been ordered against him, saying that the order has already been passed in the matter.
The bench, which also comprised Justices Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri, had earlier ordered constituting a SIT headed by the current CBI director to look into the allegations of Sinha scuttling the coal scam probes when he was the probe agency chief.
Sinha was indicted by the apex court-appointed panel which had opined that he had influenced and tried to scuttle the probe into coal scam cases.