The Supreme Court on Wednesday shot down a plea seeking early hearing of a petition challenging the verdict of the Delhi High Court quashing criminal charges against the Hinduja brothers in the Bofors pay-off case. It is not possible to give preference to your appeal unless there is something urgent, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said when the application in this regard was mentioned before it. The Bench was contemplating to post the matter for hearing sometime in March but Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium opposed the plea for early hearing,saying it was already listed for hearing in the routine course. The application filed by advocate Ajay Agrawal had said that it has been around five years since the appeal against the May 31,2005,verdict was admitted by the apex court and a notice issued to CBI and others. He submitted that early hearing on his appeal was required as certain developments have taken place since it was admitted. Agrawal said an application moved by CBI before the trial court for withdrawal of the case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi was pending and in 2006,the agency allegedly facilitated the defreezing of his accounts in a bank in London. The advocate had filed the Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the High Court judgement after CBI failed to appeal against it within the mandatory 90 days. Justice R S Sodhi had quashed all charges against the Europe-based Hinduja brothers - S P Hinduja,G P Hinduja and P C Hinduja - in the case.
