The much-awaited crucial hearing in the politically-sensitive Rs 64 crore Bofors pay-off case today did not take place in the Supreme Court as the matter did not reach the board. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had to hear the case in which it had asked BJP leader Ajay Agrawal, who is pursuing the matter for over a decade, to explain his locus in filing petition as a third party. The same bench ended the day by hearing the PILs on special judge B H Loya's death. Agrawal and the CBI waited for the matter to come till 4 pm when the bench rose for the day. However, the CBI, which was a respondent in Agrawal's petition, today filed an appeal against the May 31, 2005 order of the Delhi High Court after a lapse of 12 years. The BJP leader had filed the appeal in 2005 as the CBI had failed to move the special leave petition (SLP) within the stipulated 90 days of the high court judgement. Agrawal, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli against the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, had earlier asked the CBI to make its stand clear by filing documents on the case as respondent in his appeal. During the hearing on January 16, the bench had asked him to explain his locus in filing the appeal and satisfy it how could the matter be entertained at the instance of a third party.
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