Coal block scam: SC allows CBI to share final probe report with lawyers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today modified  its order on maintaining secrecy in coal blocks allocation scam probe by allowing CBI to share its final charge sheets with its counsel before filing them in the trial court.

A bench headed by Justice R M Lodha allowed the application filed by the agency for sharing the reports with its lawyers to fine tune them so that they can withstand the scrutiny during the trial.

“We are satisfied that since the Director, Prosecution, has not been consulted about the filing of the final report 2 under Section 173 of CrPC, the special counsel, CBI prosecutors and additional public prosecutor can be consulted,” the bench said.

The court, however, clarified that during initial stages of preparing the charge sheet, its earlier direction on maintaining secrecy would remain in force. During the hearing, the bench noted that only two states–Jharkhand and Kerala–have given requisite consent for CBI probe against their officials and state-run PSUs whose roles are required to be investigated in the case.

The bench then asked the Centre to inform it about the status of the notification to be issued by the other 18 states for allowing the agency to probe against their officials and PSUs on the next date of hearing.

PTI