A bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar agreed to hear on April 24 the plea of the Congress leader against the High Court order and asked Maharashtra's counsel to take an adjournment in the hearing before the trial court in the case.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid, former Law Minister and External Affairs Minister respectively, assailed the order of the high court against their party colleague Chavan.
The High Court's order that cognizance of the offence has already been taken is "erroneous" as for taking judicial note of the crime, a trial court "will have to issue process (summon)", he said, adding that this was not done.
Sibal said a separate plea, challenging constitutional validity of section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, under which Chavan is also charged, is pending with the apex court on the ground that it can be invoked without the accused having "mens rea" (intention to commit an offence).
The bench today asked senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for Maharashtra, to respond to the plea of Chavan.
Earlier, the High Court had dismissed Chavan's appeal to recall an earlier order refusing to delete his name from the Adarsh Housing Society scam case.