NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has cleared former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of charges related to the coal block allocation scam, nearly two years after his death. A special judge in the Supreme Court quashed the summoning order and accepted closure reports filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The bench stated that while Singh’s appeal became infructuous following his demise in December 2024, it reviewed the CBI’s closure reports and found “no reason” for the trial court to reject them. “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 the learned 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 noted.
The case involved the alleged irregular allocation of the Talabira-II coal block in Odisha to Hindalco Industries during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, when Singh also held the coal portfolio.
In March 2015, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar rejected the CBI’s closure report and summoned Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary P.C. Parakh, Hindalco Industries, and company officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D. Bhattacharya. They faced charges including criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Initially, the CBI named Birla, Parakh, and others in its FIR but later filed closure reports, stating there was no prosecutable case. However, the trial court refused to accept the reports and directed the agency to further examine Singh and senior PMO officials, including then Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair and then private secretary B.V.R. Subramanyam, before summoning the accused.
Singh challenged the summons in the Supreme Court, arguing that the trial court erred in taking cognisance despite the investigating agency finding no prosecutable case. He also questioned the lack of mandatory sanction required to prosecute a public servant and denied any wrongdoing in the coal block allocation decision. The apex court stayed the summons in April 2015, preventing him from facing trial.
After Singh’s death on December 26, 2024, at the age of 92, the Supreme Court has now disposed of the matter as infructuous, concluding the proceedings against the former prime minister.
