NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday fixed the hearings on batch of petitions, including one by the CBI, challenging the Kerala High Court order discharging Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and others in an alleged graft case involving the award of contract to a Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin for the repair of three generators in April.
The bench of Justice N V Ramana and Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar slated the final hearing of the case in the first week of April as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the investigating agency urged the court to adjourn the matter for hearing on a non-miscellaneous day.
A furious bench asked SG, “Why on a non-miscellaneous day? If your intention is to drag on the case?”
In January last year, the court had sought response from Vijayan and others on the investigating agency’s plea challenging their discharge in the alleged SNC-Lavalin corruption case and had stayed the trial of the case pertaining to an agreement with SNC-Lavalin in 1997 to repair three generators, which allegedly caused a loss of Rs 266 crore to the state exchequer.