Centre against filing status report in PNB scam

The Centre on Friday opposed a move suggested by the Supreme Court to file a status report  in the probe  into the PNB loan fraud involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, saying it amounted to holding parallel proceedings.

Attorney General K K Venugopal questioned the maintainability of a batch of PILs before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.

"This is happening more than once. Even before the investigating agency starts its probe, people come to court with public interest litigations," he said.

The court, however, asked him if the status report in the matter can be filed in a  sealed cover.

"What is the justification for any court or even the Supreme Court to ask for filing status report? It amounts to holding parallel proceedings. It can't be at the instance of PILs," he said.

On the attorney  general's contention, advocate J P Dhanda, appearing for petitioner Vineet Dhanda, submitted that  Venugopal has perhaps not read the prayers in his PIL, which he said was connected to monitoring the probe.

The bench, however, did not like  this submission and decided abruptly to adjourn the matter for hearing on April 9.

"You can't say that the attorney  general has not read your brief. The language of the counsel has to be decorous and absolutely appropriate. We won't hear this matter today," an irked CJI said.

The petitioner has sought deportation of jewellers Modi and Choksi within two months' time.

Among other things, he sought the  establishment of a body of experts to deal with cases of bad banking debts in the country.

He also sought the framing of rules for the recovery of loans from defaulters within a stipulated period, even by attaching their properties and auctioning them in the open market.