Supreme Court Closes Coal Block Case Against Former PM Manmohan Singh

NEW DELHI, Jul 29: The Supreme Court on Wednesday closed the criminal proceedings against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Talabira-II coal block allocation case, accepting the CBI’s closure report and setting aside a trial court order that had summoned him as an accused.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana held that there were no valid grounds to reject the Central Bureau of Investigation’s closure reports, formally exonerating Singh in one of the most prominent cases linked to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s coal block allocation controversy.

Singh, who passed away in December 2024, had challenged the trial court’s 2015 order summoning him to face trial in connection with the 2005 allocation of the Talabira-II coal block in Odisha.

“We have gone through both the closure reports filed by the CBI… we are satisfied that there were no cogent reasons to set aside the closure reports filed by the CBI and take cognisance,” the Bench observed.

Allowing the appeal, the apex court set aside the March 11, 2015 judgment and the consequential summoning order issued by the special court.

The case also involved industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh and three others, who had been summoned by the trial court in connection with the coal block allocation. The Supreme Court had earlier stayed the trial court’s directive.

Singh had maintained that there was no criminality in his decision regarding the allocation and argued that the mandatory sanction required for prosecuting a public servant had not been obtained. (Agencies)