SC postpones hearing on foodgrains "scam" till March 13

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred to March 13 the hearing on a plea to vacate its stay on Allahabad High Court's directions related to a CBI probe into alleged diversion of foodgrains for BPL families in Uttar Pradesh to Bangladesh and Nepal between 2001 to 2007.

A bench of justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar deferred the hearing on advocate Vishvanath Chaturvedi's plea in view of the ongoing state assembly elections.

As the state is in the midst of elections, it would be appropriate if the case is taken up after the polls, the bench told Chaturvedi's counsel Prashant Bhushan.

Earlier, on a plea by Chaturvedi, the Allahabad High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the alleged smuggling of the foodgrains, meant for the UP's BPL families under the Centre's Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojna (SGRY), to neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh.

The high court had also passed a slew of directions for the government on issues of grant of sanction for prosecution of erring officials involved in the foodgrain smuggling.

As per the high court directions, CBI need not take sanction to prosecute officials involved in the alleged scam and other similar cases. It had also said that in cases where the sanction was a must, the state's chief secretary would grant it within three months, failing which it would be deemed to have been given.

It had also asked CBI to submit its reports every two months.

On an appeal by UP government, the apex court had, however, on April 18 put an interim stay on the high court's direction which had mandated that there was no need for prior government sanction to prosecute its officials for their alleged roles in the scam.