The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed with the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that his appeal challenging a trial court summons to him in the Talabira II coal block allocation case need not be heard by the apex court’s Special Coal Bench on September 21.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu and Justice Arun Mishra deleted the appeal from the list of business of the Coal Bench, which wanted to take up Dr. Singh’s case.
The Bench agreed with senior advocate Kapil Sibal that Dr. Singh’s appeal should be detached from the other coal scam cases as it primarily questioned the constitutionality of charging persons with offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act on the mere “perception” that an administrative decision taken by them in official capacity was done with a mala fide intention. Mr. Sibal had argued that the appeal had nothing to do with the coal scam.
Without interfering in its April 1 stay of the trial court summons, Chief Justice Dattu said the appeal would now be heard by a regular Bench and not the Coal Bench monitoring the scam trial.
Manmohan concerned at graft cases
Mr. Singh has raised apprehensions over the growing number of corruption cases being filed against public servants who had acted in public interest while in office. In his petition filed in the Supreme Court in connection with a coal scam case, Dr. Singh questioned the logic behind the summons issued to him by the trial court.
He said it was time the Supreme Court issued an “authoritative pronouncement” on the interplay between governmental decisions and criminal prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, in a liberalised economy. He said a clear line had to be drawn, especially when public servants were being criminally prosecuted for governmental decisions, though there was no “whiff” of quid pro quo.
> Detailed timeline of the coal scam
Dr. Singh and the Coal trail
- ›March 2012 CAG’s draft report accuses govt of ‘inefficient’ allocation of coal blocks in 2004-2009; estimates windfall gains to allottees at Rs 10.7 lakh crore.
- ›May 29, 2012 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offers to give up his public life if found guilty in the scam. Two days later, CVC directs a CBI enquiry
- ›November 25, 2014 CBI informs a special court that it was not permitted to question former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The investigating agency also said it wasn't necessary.
- ›December 17, 2014 Special court ordered the CBI to examine former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
- ›January 20, 2015 CBI records the statement of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
- ›March 11, 2015 Special court summons former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Kumar Mangalam Birla and P.C. Parakh as accused.
- ›March 25, 2015 Manmohan Singh moves Supreme Court against summon in coal scam case.