New Delhi, October 1
The Supreme Court today deferred hearing on Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukbir Singh’s petition, seeking quashing of the charges in the Rs 78 crore disproportionate assets case against them for want of sanction from competent authorities.
A Bench, headed by Mr Justice N Santosh Hegde deferred the hearing till Monday next after senior advocate Ram Jethmalani sought to withdraw from the case as Punjab Government counsel.
Mr Jethmalani said the hearing in the case be adjourned to enable the Punjab Government to engage a new counsel.
He said, he wanted to withdraw from the case because he had sometime back accepted a brief from Badal in the case, which he did not remember when his services were sought by the Punjab Government.
Ethically it was not proper for him to appear for the government when he had accepted briefs from Mr Badal, the noted lawyer said.
The Badals had moved the Supreme Court in a special leave petition (SLP) against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, dismissing their petition challenging the order of Special Court at Ropar taking cognizance of the chargesheet in the case without proper sanction from the authorities concerned.
High Court had said that no sanction was required for prosecution of the accused under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
