Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla have been exempted from appearing in a Delhi court on April 8, as the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the order that summoned them as accused in connection with the allocation of a coal block in Odisha.
The apex court also stayed the trial court proceedings related to the allotment of Talabira II and Talabira III coalfields in Odisha to a joint venture between Aditya Birla group company Hindalco, Neyveli Lignite (NLC) and Mahanadi Coalfields in 2005.
Besides Singh and Birla, it also stayed summons issued to former coal secretary PC Parakh and two Hindalco Industries executives — Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya.
A bench comprising justices Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan also sought the CBI’s response to the six appeals filed against the special court’s summoning order of March 11 and also issued notice to the Centre on another plea filed by Hindalco challenging constitutional validity of section 13 (1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The special CBI court, which was set up to hear the coal scam cases, in its March order said that “a well-planned conspiracy was hatched” to award a coal field in Odisha to Hindalco Industries, part of the Aditya Birla Group, headed by Birla after the latter allegedly actively lobbied with Singh, who was also then acting as the coal minister.
Judge Bharat Parashar had said that prima facie there was enough evidence to summon these five persons and the company. Besides, the then prime ministers’ office had showed “undue interest” in the matter, the CBI court stated in its order.
However, Hindalco has denied any wrongdoing, saying it made its case for the mining license “in a transparent and lawful manner”.
On December 16, the special court had also directed the CBI to examine Singh further in relation to the allocation of Talabira II.
Singh’s daughters, Upinder Kaur and Daman Singh, were also present in the court during the proceedings.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Singh, argued that in pursuance of competing public interest of utilising coal, there was no illegal act involved in allocating a coal block to a private company. “There was no criminal intent, it was an administrative decision and not an illegality,” said the politician’s lawyer, who was also the telecom and law minister in Dr Singh’s cabinet.
“I must confess that I have not been able to find out what is the illegal act done by the petitioner (Singh) in the case,” Sibal said at the outset.
He argued that “there is no reference of meeting of minds to commit an illegal act by the accused persons. Where is the criminal conspiracy? Is it an offence to grant coal mines to a private sector company?.”