New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday formally closed the long-running coal block allocation case against former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, nearly two years after his passing, by accepting the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) closure report and setting aside the 2015 order that had summoned him as an accused.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohan, ruled that there were no sufficient grounds for the trial court to reject the CBI's closure report or proceed against Singh. The apex court therefore quashed the earlier orders and closed the matter on merits.
The case was linked to the allocation of the Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco Industries. In 2015, a special CBI court had summoned Dr. Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and others over alleged irregularities in the allocation process. However, the Supreme Court had stayed those summons in April 2015 while hearing appeals against the order.
During the latest hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the late former Prime Minister, requested the court to dispose of the proceedings and erase any adverse observations made against his client. The Supreme Court ultimately accepted the CBI's findings that there was no material to prosecute Singh, bringing an end to one of the cases associated with the broader coal allocation controversy.
The coal block allocation controversy, popularly known as the "Coalgate" scam, revolved around the allocation of coal mining blocks between 1993 and 2010. The controversy led to multiple investigations after allegations that natural resources had been allotted without competitive bidding, causing losses to the exchequer. While several cases emerged from the controversy, the CBI had earlier concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Dr. Manmohan Singh in the Talabira-II allocation matter.
With Wednesday's judgment, the Supreme Court has accepted the agency's closure report and brought the criminal proceedings against the former Prime Minister to a close, ending a legal chapter that had remained unresolved even after his death in December 2024.