New Delhi:
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who passed away aged 92 in the national capital on Thursday, had a brush with the justice system when he was summoned as an accused in a coal block allocation case.
The Supreme Court, however, intervened and stayed the directive.
Manmohan Singh, an astute economist and a stalwart politician, questioned the absence of the mandated sanction for prosecuting public officials like him, and denied any criminality in his decision concerning the coal block allocation.
His appeal in the top court challenged a trial court’s March 2015 order that summoned him as an accused in the alleged irregularities over the allotment of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco.
It said, “The petition raises substantial questions of law which call for an authoritative pronouncement from this court in relation to the interplay between governmental functions and criminal prosecution under the PC (prevention of corruption) Act, especially in cases where there is not even a whiff, let alone an allegation of quid pro quo, and the case is based upon the processes of governmental decisions.” Trial court judge Bharat Parashar had on March 11, 2015, rejected a CBI closure report and summoned Mr Singh and others as accused persons on April 8 the same year.
The former PM held the coal ministry portfolio, among others, when the alleged scam took place. In 2017, judge Parashar said Mr Singh had no reason to presume that the then coal secretary HC Gupta had recommended a non-compliant private firm for the allocation of coal block in Madhya Pradesh.
HC Gupta was convicted for irregularities by making a “dishonest misrepresentation” before the former PM, who was found to have only acted on the recommendations of the screening committee headed by Mr Gupta.
Mr Singh had no reason to presume the guidelines had not been complied with, the court said.
“The fact that the then PM of the country Manmohan Singh thought it appropriate to retain the charge of the ministry of coal with himself only, clearly shows as to how important the work of the said ministry was,” the judge noted.
It was apparent that Singh proceeded to consider the screening committee’s recommendation on the assumption that the applications must have been checked in the coal ministry for their eligibility and completeness, the court said further.
“While forwarding the file to the prime minister as minister of coal for approval of the recommendation of the screening committee, it was nowhere mentioned by any of the ministry officers, let alone by Gupta, that the applications have not been checked for their eligibility and completeness,” it held.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
