A special court today rejected the application filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking approval to drop former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's name from the list of accused in Adarsh Housing Society scam case.

Maharashtra Governor K Sankarnarayanan had refused to sanction prosecution of Mr. Chavan following which earlier this week Special Public Prosecutor Bharat Badami had filed an application before CBI court judge S G Dighe requesting him to allow it to remove Mr. Chavan's name from the list of 13 accused charge-sheeted in the case. The court had reserved its order on the application for today.

A judicial commission of inquiry set up by the state government had indicted Mr. Chavan along with Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh and Mr. Sushilkumar Shinde for blatant violations of statutory provisions in granting various clearances to the scam-tainted Adarsh Housing Society.

Sources had said that according to legal opinion received by the agency, it could seek a review of the Governor's rejection of sanction for prosecution if it manages to bring out new evidence or legal infirmity in the order.

55-year old Chavan, who had to step down as Chief Minister of Maharashtra after the scam surfaced, had challenged his inclusion in the charge sheet on the ground that no sanction for prosecution had been obtained from the state Governor.