The Supreme Court on Friday said it will pass order in the name of advocate for appointment as special public prosecutor (SPP) and junior lawyers for assistance to conduct trials on behalf of Enforcement Directorate in money laundering cases relating to alleged irregularities in coal block allocations.
A Bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justice Deepak Gupta asked the government to suggest names of advocates who will assist the SPP.
Senior advocate RS Cheema, who was appointed SPP, had suggested the name of advocate DP Singh for appointment as SPP, while the government had suggested senior advocate Maninder Singh's name.
The court said it wanted lawyers who have experience in dealing with this kind of scam and who practice regularly in trial courts.
Cheema was appointed SPP in 2014 by the apex court 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 coal scam cases.
Cheema contended that there was 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.
Earlier, the apex court had sought from CBI and ED the status of investigation and trial in the coal block allocation scam cases probed by the two agencies.
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