Coal Block Allocation Case: Big decision of Supreme Court, coal scam case closed against former PM Manmohan Singh; CBI closure report accepted

The Supreme Court has given a historic and important verdict in the much talked about case related to coal block allocation (Coal Scam). The apex court has officially closed the ongoing criminal proceedings against former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Along with this, the court has also completely canceled the order of the special trial court summoning him and others as accused.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana accepted the closure report of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in which the former Prime Minister and all other parties were given a complete clean chit.

‘The trial court had no solid reason to reject the closure report’

During the hearing, the Supreme Court, commenting on the stand of the special court, said that the special judge had no valid reason to reject and take cognizance of the closure report filed by the investigating agency.

The bench clarified in its order:

“Keeping in mind the standards set by this Court with regard to acceptance of the investigating agency’s report, we are fully satisfied that the Special Judge had no ground to reject the CBI’s closure report. We accept the CBI’s closure report and bring this entire matter to a close.”

What was the whole Talabira-II coal block allocation case?

This whole matter happened in the year 2005 in Odisha. Talabira-II Linked to allocation of coal blocks.

• Summoned as accused: A special CBI court had summoned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, eminent industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former Coal Secretary PC Parekh and three other officials as accused in the allocation process.

• Supreme Court’s ban: The former Prime Minister had challenged this summons order in the Supreme Court, after which on April 1, 2015, the Supreme Court put an interim stay on all the proceedings against him.

Arguments of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal in the court

Senior advocate representing the former Prime Minister Kapil Sibal argued before the bench that the decision to allot the coal block was purely an administrative decision and there was no criminal intention or irregularities of any kind involved.

Sibal also urged the court that the adverse and negative observations made by the trial court against the former prime minister should not be allowed to remain on record. After seriously studying all these aspects, the Supreme Court rejected the order of the special judge and approved the closure report in the case.