Coal case against Manmohan Singh ends after 11 years, SC quashes summons

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has cleared former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allocation case involving the Talabira-II coalfield in Odisha, bringing to an end proceedings that had continued for nearly 11 years after a trial court summoned him in 2015.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana accepted the CBI's closure report and quashed the summons issued against Singh. All proceedings against him have now come to an end.
The case related to the allocation of the Talabira-II coal block to a private company. Manmohan Singh was named as the sixth accused.

The Supreme Court found no justification for the special court to reject the CBI's closure report and proceed with the case. The investigating agency had submitted two closure reports, and the bench examined them against the principles governing judicial consideration of such reports.

The summons had been issued in 2015 by Bharat Parashar, then Special CBI Judge at the Patiala House Court. Parashar is now the Secretary General of the Supreme Court.
The trial court had earlier accepted the CBI's decision to close the case. The Supreme Court, while examining Singh's appeal, found that there were no sufficient grounds for the special judge to reject the closure report and register the case.

Manmohan Singh died on December 26, 2024. The proceedings could have ended with his death, but the Supreme Court decided to examine the appeal he had filed while alive. The court also reviewed the two closure reports submitted by the CBI before determining whether the trial court's order could legally stand.
With the Supreme Court now accepting the CBI's closure report and quashing the 2015 summons, the proceedings against the former prime minister have formally ended.