Coal scam: Justice KV Viswanathan recuses himself, CJI to reconstitute bench

Supreme Court

Supreme Court judge Justice K V Viswanathan on Thursday recused himself from hearing coal scam cases, saying he had appeared in one of the matters as a lawyer.

The pleas seek modification of earlier Supreme Court orders that had barred the high courts from taking up appeals against trial court orders passed in criminal cases related to alleged illegal coal block allocations.

Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who was heading the bench that comprised justices Sanjay Kumar and Viswanathan, said he would reconstitute a fresh three-judge bench to hear the cases in the week commencing February 10.

The bench deliberated upon the scope of appeals and the applicability of earlier orders restricting high courts from hearing these cases and asked the apex court registry to prepare a comprehensive compilation of all pending petitions related to 2014 and 2017 judgments that had barred the high court from hearing interlocutory appeals.

“The registry shall prepare a compilation of all cases where the special leave petitions (SLPs) are filed in terms of the judgments of this court in 2014 and 2017… “The fresh bench shall exclude Justice Vishwanathan and shall be formed in the week commencing February 10,2025. Key question will be: Whether or not one who seeks stay of trial will not go by the procedure of CrPC but instead file a SLP in the Supreme Court,” the order said.

At the outset, Justice Vishwanathan said he was in “the Common Cause (the NGO which had filed the PIL in coal scam cases) case. This case was of the ED (Enforcement Directorate), but still…”.

The top court in 2014 quashed 214 coal blocks allocated by the Centre between 1993 and 2010 after taking note of the PILs and ordered a trial by a special CBI judge.

The bench had directed that any prayer for a stay or to impede the investigation or the trial could only be made before the Supreme Court, effectively barring other courts from entertaining such pleas.