The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the plea challenging the Calcutta High Court order which permitted the CBI to continue its investigation into the alleged case of illegal mining and transportation of coal in West Bengal despite the Mamata Banerjee-led state government, in November 2018, withdrawing general consent to the agency for carrying out probes in West Bengal.
The bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah listed all the appeals in the matter for hearing on Monday since Senior Advocate Harish Salve appearing for Western Coalfields and Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Anup Majee said that their SLPs were not listed for hearing today. The bench accordingly listed all the matters together for hearing on Monday.
The bench was hearing a plea filed by Anup Majee, who is the director of a private company and named as an accused in the case lodged in November 2020 of corruption and criminal breach of trust with regard to illegal mining and pilferage of coal from leasehold area of Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) in certain parts of West Bengal.
The High Court had stayed the order of the single-judge bench which had held that probe beyond the Railway areas (in the State of West Bengal), shall be conducted by the CBI only subject to specific consent being granted by appropriate authorities of the State of West Bengal.
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Against the order of the High Court, Majee filed an appeal before the Supreme Court contending that that the CBI lacked jurisdiction to lodge a First Information Report in the case after the withdrawal of general consent by the West Bengal government in 2018.
The Supreme Court on the previous hearing had issued notices to the CBI and the other respondents observing that both the state of West Bengal and petitioner were aggrieved and notices were needed to be issued to CBI and the concerned parties to hear the matter at length. However, the bench denied granting any interim relief to Majee.