NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will consider the Lavalin case next Thursday for the final argument. The CBI requested the court to consider the case which is of urgent importance at the earliest. Following that, the court decided to consider the case on Thursday. The case was considered by a bench led by Justice U U Lalith.

The court will consider on Thursday the pleas filed by the CBI and officials including Kasthuri Ranga Iyer against the verdict of the Kerala High Court. The case is being considered at a time when the state is all set to face elections.

The case which reached the Supreme Court in October 2017 was in the bench led by Justice N V Ramana for the past three years. On August 28, the case was shifted to a new bench of Justice U U Lalith and Justice Vineet Saran. On August 31, Justice U U Lalith referred the Lavalin case back to Justice N V Ramana's bench, citing that this is a case being considered by another bench. Justice Ramana sent it back to Justice Lalith.

Justice Raveendra Bhatt has been newly inducted into the new bench of U U Lalith. The Kerala High Court had in August 2017 acquitted Pinarayi Vijayan, K Mohan Chandran and A Francis. Then ordered Kasthuriranga Iyer, R Sivasan and K G Rajashekaran to face trial. The CBI argued that Pinarayi Vijayan was acquitted in the case without accepting the clear evidence.