SC appoints Sunaina Sharma special judge to try coal scam cases
The Supreme Court on Monday appointed Sunaina Sharma, an officer of the Delhi Higher Judicial Service, to conduct trials in the coal scam cases probed by the CBI. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took note of the submissions of apex court-appointed special public prosecutor and senior advocate RS Cheema that incumbent special CBI judge Sanjay Bansal was allowed to continue on April 8, 2025, for a period of six months.
Cheema further said that more than eight months have passed since then and the presiding officer is now seeking to be relieved from the task to conduct the trials in the coal scam cases. The bench noted that the Delhi High Court has submitted a panel of three names of judicial officers to replace Bansal.
On April 8, 2025, the bench had relieved another special CBI judge, Arun Bhardwaj and replaced him with Dheeraj Mor. With the fresh orders, now Mor and Sunaina Sharma will be conducting trials in all the pending coal scam cases. According to reports available in last June, a total of 29 corruption cases filed by the CBI are currently pending before two special courts set up to try cases arising out of the coal scam, whereas 27 cases have been disposed of so far.
On January 16, 2025, the Enforcement Directorate informed the top court that 45 prosecution complaints (ED’s equivalent to a chargesheet), including supplementary ones, were pending under the PMLA. The top court in 2014 quashed 214 coal blocks allocated by the Centre between 1993 and 2010 after taking note of two PILs and had ordered a trial by a special CBI judge. It later increased the number of courts to two to try the scam-related cases.
