The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to accept the report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the fake stamp paper scam for the timebeing, saying the appointment of S.S. Puri as its overall head was itself being challenged. A division bench comprising Chief Justice C.K. Thakker and Justice Sharad Bobade, while refusing to accept the SIT report, said that ‘‘propriety demanded that the court should not see the reports until the issue was decided.’’The court also deferred till February 11 a petition filed by former Mumbai police commissioner R.S. Sharma — one of the 64 scam accused — challenging the appointment of Puri as SIT chief with the rank of DGP and IGP.Sharma’s counsel urged the court to recall the order dated Sept 24, 2003, wherein the HC had passed directions and appointed Puri as SIT chief in a ‘‘supervisory’’ capacity and strengthening and enlarging the scope of the probe. The HC order had further empowered Puri to exercise all the powers of a DGP, ‘‘as if he is in service’’, said Manohar.Terming it ‘‘illegal, invalid and unconstitutional’’ the HC order appointing Puri as SIT chief and the consequent issuance of a government resolution, Manohar urged the court to recall its order and quash the latter, and also as an interim-relief restrain Puri from exercising the powers of DGP and from being part of the SIT. The court, however, deferred hearings in the matter till February 11 as it was brought to its notice by Advocate General Goolam Vahanvati that a similar petition had been filed in the Supreme Court which would hear the matter on February 3.
