The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a 2015 special CBI court order that had summoned former prime minister Manmohan Singh as an accused in the long-running Talabira-II coal block allocation case, ruling there was no sufficient basis to prosecute him. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, quashed the trial court order and accepted closure reports filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that had found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Singh.
The verdict comes nearly 18 months after Singh died in December 2024 at the age of 92; his appeal against the criminal summons had remained pending before the Supreme Court for more than a decade. The court noted that Singh’s appeal had technically become irrelevant after his death but said it was important to examine the matter on merits to remove adverse remarks and allegations that had affected his reputation. While the bench said the appeal could have been dismissed as “infructuous”, it reviewed the circumstances under which the trial court had proceeded.
The case centres on the 2005 allocation of the Talabira-II coal block in Odisha to Hindalco Industries, part of the Aditya Birla Group, at a time when Singh was prime minister and also handling the coal portfolio. The CBI investigated and filed two closure reports in 2014 concluding there was no criminal conspiracy or evidence implicating Singh. In March 2015, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar rejected those reports and summoned Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh; the Supreme Court stayed the summons on April 1, 2015.
During final hearings, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Singh, argued that the coal allocation was an administrative decision taken under prevailing policies and that criminal proceedings could not proceed without the required sanction for prosecution. They urged the apex court to expunge the trial court’s observations, saying the allegations had continued to damage Singh’s public image despite the absence of evidence.
The Supreme Court agreed that the special judge lacked compelling grounds to disregard the CBI’s detailed investigation and had gone beyond his authority in rejecting the agency’s findings without sufficient material. By quashing the 2015 summons order and accepting the CBI’s closure reports, the court effectively cleared the late prime minister of criminal allegations in this matter. Proceedings against other accused in related coal allocation cases may continue separately, but the judgment brings an end to Singh’s long legal battle and removes the formal judicial stain on his record.
