Senior counsel Prashant Bhushan on Thursday appealed to the Supreme Court to refer all the cases and file notings in the coal black allocation scam to the Central Vigilance Commission, which should decide whether the CBI should proceed with the case for filing a charge sheet.
“If a case had been wrongly closed, it should be re-opened and charge sheet should be filed,” Mr Bhushan said.
Senior counsel Amarendra Sharan, appearing for the CBI, contended that the CVC could at best have a look at the files in cases in which the CBI had registered preliminary enquiries but was yet to decide on whether to convert them into regular cases. “Once regular cases are filed and the case goes before a trial court, the CVC has no jurisdiction under the CVC Act to direct the CBI to act in any particular manner,” Mr. Sharan said.
Taking note of the submissions, the Bench said a detailed hearing was required on this aspect. Taking on record the status reports filed by the CBI, the Bench directed the agency to place files relating to all preliminary enquires before the CVC for getting the report of the two vigilance commissioners within six weeks.
The Bench, while posting the matter for further hearing on July 8, asked both the CBI and Enforcement Directorate to file status reports as on June 30 by July 7.