Friday, February 24 2006 20:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today (Feb 24 2006) posted to March 17, hearing of a PIL challenging the Centre's decision to allow defreezing of London Bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavia Quattrochi, an accused in the Bofors payoffs scandal.

A Division Bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma postponed the hearing following submissions by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Gopal Subramaniam that a similar petition filed in the matter was pending before the Supreme Court.

He said the Apex Court had posted the matter for hearing in the second week of August. However, senior counsel P N Lekhi appearing for the petitioner Ravinder Kumar disputed the ASG's contention and argued that the prayer contained in the two petitions were different.

Lekhi also argued that the Government had not served him with any copies of the case pending in the Supreme Court.

Following this the Bench directed the Government to provide copies of all relevant material pertaining to the case in the Supreme Court to the petitioner.

In his petition, Kumar who is the president of the Rashtriya Mukti Morcha urged the court to issue a direction to the Centre to recover the defrozen money from the London Bank accounts of Quattrochi.

He alleged the bank acounts were defrozen by the Government with a malafide intention to help Quattrochi who is wanted by CBI in connection with Bofors kicbacks controversy.

Besides, the CBI director, the petition sought issuance of notices to the Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Home Affairs.