The adjournment was given as the post of additional chief metropolitan magistrate, which takes up all CBI matters, is lying vacant. The post has not been filled since June 1 when magistrate, SB Dhumal, went on a transfer to Usmanabad.

The investigative agency had filed two chargesheets in the metropolitan court on January 5, 1996 against RIL, the company's chairman and managing director, Dhirubhai H Ambani and others, including bank officials from Standard Chartered Bank and Societe Generale. The chargesheets have alleged that RIL backdated letter of credits for import of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) worth around Rs 180 crore. In the last hearing on April 3, 1998, the magistrate Dhumal had agreed to separate the cases of those accused who are posted abroad from the two main cases.

Meanwhile, the chairman andmanaging director of RIL has made an application seeking withdrawal of the summons and criminal proceedings against him. According to the application, Ambani has been named as an accused in both the cases only on the presumption that he connived in his capacity as a chairman and managing director, when the import of PTA took place. CBI has opposed Ambani's application stating that "there is no provision in law about hearing on the cognisance and withdrawal was by the trial court after the cognisance has been taken".