The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Centre time till February 10 to suggest names of lawyers for appointing a special public prosecutor to conduct trials for the Enforcement Directorate in money laundering cases related to the coal block scam. A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice Deepak Gupta was considering the plea of senior advocate R S Cheema, who wanted to be relieved as the prosecutor in money laundering cases.
The top court appointed Cheema Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in coal block scam cases in 2014. The bench did not seem to be in agreement with the suggestion of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, that former Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh be appointed the special prosecutor to conduct trial in ED cases pertaining to coal scam cases. “We need a trial court lawyer who has been conducting trials,” the bench said, adding that “the other lawyer” suggested by Cheema seemed to be more appropriate.
