Supreme Court Judge Justice KV Viswanathan on Thursday recused from hearing coal scam cases citing his prior involvement as a lawyer in one of the matters. .The bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan was hearing petitions which sought modifications to earlier orders, which had prohibited High Courts from hearing appeals against trial court rulings in criminal cases connected to the illegal allocation of coal blocks.."Though these are ED cases, but I had appeared in Common Cause one," said Justice Viswanathan while recusing from the case..CJI Khanna stated that a fresh three judge bench would be constituted to hear the case.."Registry shall prepare compilation of all cases where SLPs are filed in terms of judgment of this court in 2014 and 2017 judgments. The fresh bench shall exclude Justice Viswanathan and shall be formed week commencing February 10,2025. Key question will be: Whether or not one who seek stay of trial will not go by procedure of CrPC but instead file SLP in Supreme Court?," the Court said..In 2014, the Supreme Court annulled the allocation of 214 coal blocks made by the Central government between 1993 and 2010, following public interest litigation. The Court ordered a trial to be conducted by a special CBI judge and specified that any requests to stay or hinder the investigation or trial could only be addressed by the Supreme Court, thereby preventing other courts from hearing such applications..The top court also directed the registry to compile a comprehensive list of pending petitions tied to the 2014 and 2017 judgments which had barred High Courts from taking up these appeals.
