The Supreme Court hearing into the petitions by former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla for quashing criminal proceedings against them for alleged wrongdoing in the allocation of the Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco is likely to be delayed as an appropriate bench is yet to be named to hear the matter.
The Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice H.L. Dattu on 15 September directed the deletion of matter figuring in the “advance list” for September 21, 2015.
“You are here not there,” Chief Justice Dattu said, noting that the summoning of Dr. Manmohan Singh and Kumar Mangalam Birla was stayed by a bench headed by Justice V. Gopala Gowda while the matter relates to a coal block allocation case being heard by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur.
The matter came up today (15 September) as senior counsel Kapil Sibal had told the court on Monday that the matter was listed for hearing on September 21, though notice had been issued but the pleadings were yet to be completed.
He said that in the absence of pleadings being complete, the matter cannot be listed for hearing. The chief justice, while deleting the matter listed for hearing on September 21, granted liberty to mention the matter before it for hearing at a later stage. [IANS]
