Coal scam: Supreme Court permits IRS officer of ED to join parent cadre in CBIC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Wednesday permitted repatriation of an IRS officer, who was part of Enforcement Directorate probing money laundering aspect of coal scam cases, to his parent cadre in the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) for availing promotion related service benefits.

The top court in 2014 had quashed 214 coal blocks allocated by the Centre between 1993 and 2010 after taking note of PILs and had ordered trial by a special CBI Judge.

Later on November 27, 2018, it had directed: "We make it clear that no supervising officer or investigating officer should be transferred or removed without the leave of this Court."

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Vineet Saran and Surya Kant took note of plea of Palash Bhoyar, who has been working as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) with the ED, that he has to be repatriated to the CBIC to avail promotion benefits.

The bench asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and others including petitioners -- lawyer M L Sharma and advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Common Cause – whether they have any objection to the plea of the IRS officer.

After noting the fact that nobody had any objection to the plea of Bhoyar, the bench permitted his repatriation to CBIC.

"The parent department of the Applicant, CBIC, has initiated the process of Annual General Transfer-2021 which was delayed due to Covid 2nd Wave. The AGT Order is to be issued by the last week of June, 2021. Hence, the extreme urgency, failing which the Applicant shall suffer irreparable loss to his service career.

"The Applicant has been promoted to the post of Joint Commissioner in his parent department, but cannot take charge of the post until repatriation," the plea said. Lawyer Amit Anand Tiwari appeared for the CBI in the case.

Earlier, the top court, on April 5 this year, had decided to appoint two judicial officers, Arun Bhardwaj and Sanjay Bansal, as special judges to conduct trials in the sensational coal scam cases pending since 2014 here.

The two judges had replaced special judge Bharat Parashar who was holding trials in 41 coal scam cases.