The Supreme Court on Wednesday constituted a new bench to hear the Rs 175 crore Taj Heritage Corridor Scam involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati and some senior officials of the state.
The new bench headed by Justice Ruma Pal will consider six departmental inquiry reports against three top officials of the state on May 7, the next date of hearing. The setting of the new bench to hear the politically sensitive case was necessitated as the Chief Justice of India V N Khare, who was heading the bench till now, is due to retire on May 2.
Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia, who were hearing the matter along with CJI Khare, will continue to be on the bench.
The Uttar Pradesh government had on Monday filed six departmental inquiry reports, two each, against former chief secretary D S Bagga, P L Punia, former principal secretary to the then chief minister Mayawati and former environment secretary V K Gupta in the apex court.
The reports were filed following an earlier direction when the court took strong exception to the re-instatement of these officials who were suspended after the scam came to light last year.
Besides the departmental inquiry reports, the new bench will also consider a report of the Central Water Research Station (CWRS), Khadakwasla which was asked in September last year to examine the reclamation of land from Yamuna river bed and the adverse impact of the project on the flow of the river and the Taj Mahal.
