THE Supreme Court on Monday appointed two judicial officers, Arun Bhardwaj and Sanjay Bansal, as special judges to conduct trials in the coal scam cases pending since 2014 here. Earlier special judge Bharat Parashar was conducting trials in around the 40 coal scam cases and has been replaced by two judges after the apex court recently took note of a letter from the Delhi High Court’s Registrar General that permission be granted to nominate or post another suitable presiding judicial officer as special judge in place of Parashar.

 

A bench headed by CJI S A Bobde considered the five names of judicial officers provided by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and said that it assumed that “all the judges are good.” The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, instead of appointing one special judge to replace Parashar, nominated two Presiding Officers to conduct trials after special public prosecutor Cheema suggested so. There are 41 pending cases and it would be appropriate if two courts are constituted, Cheema said. The bench then decided to appoint Bhardwaj and Bansal as special judges to preside over two courts to deal with coal scam cases.