SC adjournes hearing petitions of Anand n Khan till Sep 22

New Delhi, Sep 15 (UNI) The Supreme Court today adjourned till September 22 the hearing of the petitions filed by Senior Advocate R K Anand and sacked Special Prosecutor I U Khan, challenging the Delhi High Court order debarring them from appearing in any court in Delhi, including the high court, for four months for alluring a key-witness in the BMW case to save main accused Sanjeev Nanda.

A bench, comprising Justices B N Agarwal and G S Singhvi also refused to stay the operation of the impugned high court order and directed that the entire case record shall be placed before the court on the next date of hearing.

Retired Delhi High Court Judge and senior counsel R S Sodhi apppearing for Anand, contended before the court that the high court order is in violation of the Constitution Bench Judgement of the apex court.

The court, hoewever, said it will consider the petitions on the next hearing.

Senior counsel P P Rao appeared for Khan, who was sacked as Special Prosecutor in the BMW case.

Khan and Anand were caught on camera in a sting operation conducted by a TV news channel. Anand was shown telling prosecution witness Sunil Kulkarni to demand Rs five crore fron the Nandas for turning hostile. Khan was to get 50 per cent share of the money.

The apex court made it clear that the high court is fully competent to withdraw the designation of senior from an advocate and bar council has no role to play in it.

Sanjeev Nanda has since been awarded five years of imprisonment by the trial court for culpable homicide not ammounting to murder under section 304 (Part II) OF IPC.

The high court in its judgement had also imposed a fine of Rs 2000 each on Anand and Khan after holding them guilty of contempt of court for obstructing the course of justice.

UNI SC SP MIR NS1338