The Supreme Court has formally acquitted former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a coal block allocation case, accepting the CBI’s closure report and setting aside a previous summoning order against him.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana on Wednesday accepted the CBI’s closure report in the high-profile criminal case, which had given a clean chit to Manmohan Singh and others. The apex court ruled that the trial court judge had no valid reason to reject the CBI’s closure reports and take cognisance of the case.
The case pertained to the allocation of the Talabira-II coal block in Odisha to M/s Hindalco in 2005, during Manmohan’s tenure as Prime Minister when he also held the coal portfolio. Manmohan had passed away on December 27 2024.
The top court said there was no reason for the trial court judge to turn down closure reports of the CBI and take cognisance. “Due to unfortunate demise of the appellant, this appeal could be disposed of as infructuous. But with a view to consider the aspect of ld. spl. judge taking cognisance and summoning the appellant, we have gone through both closure reports filed by CBI,” it said.
“Having regard to the relevant parameters consistently laid down by this court on acceptance of reports of investigating agency, we are satisfied that there was no reason for ld. judge to turn down closure reports of CBI and take cognisance. We allow the appeal and set aside the impugned judgment. As a result, we accept the closure reports of CBI and close the matter,” the bench said.
Manmohan, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary P C Parakh and three others were summoned as accused by a special court in a coal scam case pertaining to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005. The Supreme Court, however, intervened and stayed the directive.
Manmohan had questioned the absence of the mandated sanction for prosecuting public officials like him and denied any criminality in his decision concerning the coal block allocation.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar had summoned the six accused for the alleged offences punishable under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) of the IPC and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court had also summoned M/s Hindalco and its officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya as accused in the case.
However, the agency had later on filed a closure report in the court, which had refused to accept it. The court had directed the CBI to examine the former PM and some top officials in the PMO, including Manmohan’s principal secretary TKA Nair and private secretary BVR Subramanyam.
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