New Delhi, June 3
Within a month after resigning as Union Law Minister, Ashwani Kumar today returned to legal practice arguing before a Supreme Court Bench, which incidentally included Justice Madan B Lokur who had been part of the Bench that had heard the PILs on the coal block allocation scam.

Kumar had quit on May 10 following SC remarks against his interference in the CBI investigations in the coal scam case which is being heard by a Bench comprising Justices RM Lodha and Lokur.

Kumar, who is a senior advocate, today argued before a Bench headed by Justice Gyan Sudha Misra and sought interim relief in the form of stay on summons against his client in a case of forgery, besides issuance of notice to the respondent.

Accepting his contention that the case was an offshoot of a property dispute, the Bench stayed the summons and issued notice.

Kumar had to wait in the courtroom for a long time until the Bench took up his case for hearing at 1.30 pm which normally was the lunch-break time.

Kumar quit as Law Minister after CBI Director Ranjit Sinha told the SC that he had “shared” the agency’s March 8, 2013 probe report in the coal scam case with the minister and senior officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Coal Ministry “as desired by them” before giving it to the court.

Following the CBI affidavit, the SC had remarked that the government should not have interfered in the investigations as the probe covered ministers and officials.