By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya will take up the petition of the state government challenging the order of Meghalaya Lokayukta for CBI probe into coal scam.
During the hearing on Monday, Justice HS Thangkhiew informed that the matter will be heard by the division bench on February 24.
Besides the CBI probe, the Lokayukta wanted transfer of some government officials to facilitate a fair investigation.
The petition filed by the state government is against Abhijit Basumatary, who had sought the CBI probe into the coal racket from the Lokayukta.
After hearing at some length, the judge observed that it appears that a similar matter is pending and certain interim orders had been passed by the division bench of the court.
Earlier in August last year, the division bench had temporarily stayed a CBI probe into an alleged corruption case in GHADC as ordered by the Lokayukta.
The stay was after the contractor, Kubon Sangma moved the court citing that under the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, there should be separate inquiry wing and hence cases cannot be handed over to CBI for probe.
In view of this, the counsels for the parties wanted the matter be placed before the division bench.
The advocate general, who represented the petitioner state government, has decided to file an additional affidavit to supplement the petition to bring on record the relevant documents.
