Coal block allocation case: SC closes criminal case against former PM Manmohan Singh | Today’s news
The Supreme Court on Wednesday closed the criminal case against former prime minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allocation case, allowing his appeal and setting aside a court order that dismissed the CBI’s closure reports and summoned him to court.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana observed that there were no compelling reasons to reject the CBI’s closure reports or to consider the case against Singh.
What the Supreme Court said
“Having regard to the relevant parameters consistently laid down by this court while accepting the reports of the investigating agency, we are satisfied that there was no reason for the learned judge to reject the CBI’s final reports and take note. We allow the appeal and set aside the impugned judgment. Accordingly, we accept the CBI’s final reports and close the matter,” the court said, according to PTI.
The court noted that although Singh died on 26 December 2024, it chose to examine the legality of the trial court’s order instead of dismissing the appeal as inadmissible. “In view of the unfortunate death of the petitioner, this appeal could be disposed of as invalid. But… we have gone through both the closure reports filed by the CBI,” the bench observed, PTI reported.
The SC had earlier stayed summons to Singh
Singh, along with industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal minister PC Parakh and three others, were summoned by a special court in connection with the allocation of the Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005. The Supreme Court stayed the summons in April 2015.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Singh, had earlier said that the suit may be disposed of with an order stating that the remarks against him remain deleted, the Bar and Bench said. “I don’t want these sightings to be there,” Sibal said.
