The Election Commission will soon fix a fresh date for hearing Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in the “paid news” controversy.

Official sources said that as there was a change in the Commission set-up — as S.Y. Quraishi has taken over as the Chief Election Commissioner from Navin Chawla and Harishankar Brahma has joined as the new Election Commissioner — since the last hearing of the case (July 9), the full Commission would take a fresh look at the file. The date for the “personal hearing” would be fixed in the next few days, the sources said.

The Commission took up the case following a complaint by BJP national secretary Kirit Somaiya that Mr. Chavan, who won from the Bhokar Assembly constituency in Nanded district, paid for publication of laudatory news items in leading Marathi newspapers during the poll, but did not disclose the details in the election expenditure accounts.

But Mr. Chavan refuted the allegation by stating that the newspapers on their own might have published complimentary stories on him and he had no role to play.