Coalgate: Relief for Manmohan Singh as SC stays summons against ex-PM, 5 others

The Supreme Court stayed court proceedings and a summons issued by a special CBI court against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and five others in the case of allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005 to Aditya Birla group company Hindalco.

The stay, which also applied to Hindalco Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, former Coal Secretary PC Parakh and three others, came after senior counsel Kapil Sibal questioned the legality of the summons to the former Prime Minister citing lack of sanction as required under the CrPC and contended that allocation of a coal block was an administrative act without any criminal intent.

“I must confess that I have not been able to find out what is the illegal act done by the petitioner in the case,” Sibal said at the outset of the 35-minute proceedings.

“We issue notice on all six petitions. The trial court order shall remain stayed,” a bench of justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan said after hearing arguments by Sibal, who represented the former Prime Minister, and other lawyers in the case.

Sibal said it is not an illegal act to allot a mine contending that the administrative acts of the Prime Minister cannot be faulted on the ground that he did not follow the recommendations or procedures adopted by the screening committee.

He also referred to the earlier Supreme Court judgement by which all the coal block allocations were quashed on the ground that screening committee procedures were illegal.

“The trial court, in its order, says that you did not follow the screening committee and this is contrary to law,” Sibal said, adding that the order summoning the PM does not stand the scrutiny of “public reasoning”.

He also said that the trial court order does not deal with the provisions on requirement of prior sanction to prosecute a public servant under the criminal procedure code (CrPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Referring to the essential ingredients of an offence, Sibal said that “there is no reference of meeting of minds to commit an illegal act by the accused persons”.

During the hearing, the bench asked the counsel for Singh to satisfy it on provisions relating to grant of sanction to prosecute a public servant.

Sibal referred to various Supreme Court judgements and said “even if I am the Coal Minister at the relevant time, I don’t lose the status of the Prime Minister who has got plenary power. Everyday, I take decisions as minister and reject the advice. Should I be sent to Tihar Jail?”

“There has to be a meeting of minds to do a criminal act with regard to allocation of Talabira coal mines to a private firm,” he said. “Where is the criminal conspiracy? Is it an offence to grant coal mines to a private sector company?” he added.

Sibal said a decision may be “right or wrong” but it cannot be said to be an illegal act and the trial court order does not stand the scrutiny of public reasoning.

“There was no final allocation. There was no communication of the decision. A decision unless communicated, does not become a decision,” he said.

Sibal also referred to the 16 December, 2014 order of the trial court by which CBI was asked to question the former Prime Minister, and said that “a judge cannot do this. This is not fair. This is maverick.”

A judge can reject the closure report and may take cognizance of the closure report but cannot decide the nature of the investigation, he said.

82-year-old Singh’s daughters, Upinder Singh and Daman Singh, were present in the court during the proceedings.

The bench also stayed the proceedings before the trial court and issued notice to the Centre on a plea challenging constitutional validity of section 13 (1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The apex court also issued a notice to CBI on the issue and said that there was no illegality in the allocation made by the government to Hindalco because it was an administrative decision. The Supreme Court also noted that CBI had earlier filed a closure report in the coal scam case twice.

Congress leader and Manmohan Singh’s legal representative Ashwani Kumar said that the CBI has accepted the Supreme Court notice given to them. The CBI has also been given three weeks to reply to the notice of the apex court. The case will be taken up by the Supreme Court in four weeks.

Singh had sought the quashing of the summons issued to him to appear as an accused on 8 April by Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar on the ground that the order was passed without application of mind.

“There is complete non-application of mind,” the petition had said about the 11 March order. A team of senior advocates, led by Kapil Sibal, had settled Singh’s petition.

The plea had also said that there was nothing on record to point out that Singh has done any acts which may constitute any offence. The former Prime Minister had only taken a decision as a competent authority on allocation of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco on the representation of Odisha government, it had said.

The trial judge, on 11 March, had said, “I am taking cognisance of offences under Sections 120B (conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the IPC and under Sections 13(1)(c) and 13(1)(d)(3) of PCA against six accused, M/s Hindalco, Shubhendu Amitabh, D Bhattacharya, Kumar Mangalam Birla, P C Parakh and Dr Manmohan Singh.”

Section 13(1)(c) of PCA relates to a public servant dishonestly misappropriating property entrusted to him or allowing any other person to do so.

Section 13(1)(d)(3) relates to a public servant obtaining any pecuniary advantage for any person without any public interest.

(With inputs from PTI)