Hindustan Times (Bathinda)

Govt ready for Sc-monitored probe, SIT in coal block scam

- Nagendar Sharma letters@hindustant­imes.com

NEW DELHI: With all eyes fixed on the crucial hearing in the coal blocks allocation case in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the government appears to be bracing itself for a virtual repeat scenario which it faced in the 2G telecom and black money cases in the top court.

Faced with twin problems of breaking the logjam in parliament, the government is left with little option other than to agree either for a court-monitored investigat­ion or setting up of an independen­t Special Investigat­ion Team.

Government sources have indicated the government’s readiness to agree for a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe.

In the 2G case, the CBI’s response had infuriated the Supreme Court as the investigat­ing agency wanted six months to complete the probe. The court was furious at no action having been taken for a year, despite the FIR having been lodged in October 2009.

Infact, a terse comment by the bench of Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly about the “slipshod probe” into the case, which spurred both the CBI and the government into action, leading to a spate of arrests within a fortnight.

This was followed by the Supreme Court taking a similar tough stand in the black money case. In July 2011, dissatisfi­ed with the “lack of seriousnes­s” shown by the government in bringing back huge amounts of black money stashed abroad, the top court had set up a SIT.

The court had appointed former Supreme Court judge Justice BP Jeevan Reddy and had directed the government to ask the members of its high level committee to report to Justice Reddy.

The government was not happy with the judgment, and its review petition is still pending in the Supreme Court.

Another example of the Supreme Court forming a SIT was in the Gujarat riots cases, where 10 major cases were handed over it following allegation­s of state police being biased.

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