Former Prime Minister late Dr Manmohan Singh was on Wednesday formally exonerated in the coal block allocation case after the Supreme Court quashed a 2015 Special CBI Court order summoning him to face trial, holding that there were no cogent reasons to reject the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) closure reports that had given him a clean chit.
NEW DELHI — Former Prime Minister late Dr Manmohan Singh was on Wednesday formally exonerated in the coal block allocation case after the Supreme Court quashed a 2015 Special CBI Court order summoning him to face trial, holding that there were no cogent reasons to reject the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) closure reports that had given him a clean chit.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana allowed Singh's appeal and set aside the March 11, 2015 order of the Special Judge, Patiala House Courts, which had rejected the CBI's closure reports and taken cognisance against the former Prime Minister under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In its order, the CJI Kant-led Bench said, "We have gone through both the closure reports filed by the CBI with the able assistance of learned senior counsels for the parties."
"Having regard to the parameters consistently laid down by this Court in the matter of acceptance or rejection of an investigation report filed by an investigating agency, we are satisfied that there were no cogent reasons to set aside the closure reports filed by the CBI and take cognisance," the bench said.
"Consequently, we allow the appeal and set aside the impugned judgment dated March 11, 2015 and the consequential order summoning the appellant to face trial," the Supreme Court ordered.
Dr Singh, who passed away in December 2024, had challenged the trial court's decision despite the CBI filing two closure reports exonerating him in the case relating to the allocation of coal blocks to Hindalco.
The apex court took note of the submission of senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi that although the appeal could technically have been disposed of as infructuous following the former Prime Minister's demise, it was necessary to examine the legality of the Special Judge's order as it contained adverse findings against him.
Earlier, on April 1, 2015, the Supreme Court had stayed the summons issued to Dr Manmohan Singh after observing that the petitions raised important questions of law, including the constitutional validity of Section 13(1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
At that stage, Sibal had argued that there was nothing illegal in the former Prime Minister's decision to allocate the coal block to Hindalco against the recommendation of the Screening Committee, contending that it was a purely administrative decision and that the Special Judge could not sit in judgment over the executive's assessment of public interest.
He had also highlighted that the trial court issued summonses despite two closure reports filed by the CBI.
Accepting those closure reports more than a decade later, the Supreme Court has now brought the criminal proceedings against the late former Prime Minister to a close.