New Delhi, October 29
The Supreme Court today rejected a plea for registration of an FIR against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in connection with the coal block allocation scam.

The plea had been made by advocate ML Sharma, who has filed the PIL in the scam, contending that the October 19 statement of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking to justify the allocation of a coal block to Hindalco in 2005, when Manmohan Singh was the PM holding the coal portfolio, amounted to “confession” on the criminal conspiracy and as such the CBI should name him in the FIR and record his statement.

The petitioner had also pleaded that the SC should direct Singh to file an affidavit in the court explaining the logic behind the allocation of all other coal blocks to various corporate entities during the entire period when he was running the Coal Ministry in addition to being the PM.

“The application (containing the pleas) is dismissed,” a three-member Bench headed by Justice RM Lodha said in an order after making a brief oral observation that “we are hearing the matter, you are reaching the conclusion.” The Bench, which included Justices MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph, did not elaborate.

The Bench passed the order after hearing Sharma’s argument, pleading that the Prime Minister should “at least” be asked to file an affidavit in the SC explaining the manner in which he allotted the coal blocks. He made it clear that he was not pressing for Singh’s inclusion in the FIR.

In his application, he had prayed for a directive to the CBI to “include the name of the ministers concerned including the then Coal Ministers in the FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and to record their statements under Section 161 of the CrPC.”

In its statement, the PMO had clarified that the allocation of Talabira coal block to Hindalco was made at the instance of industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and on the recommendation of Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The PMO had issued the statement in the wake of former Union Coal Secretary PC Parakh pointing an accusing finger at Manmohan Singh. The development had taken place after the CBI had registered an FIR against Birla and Parakh.

Today, the SC also passed two other orders after hearing a bunch of PILs on the scam. The Bench allowed CBI’s plea for inclusion of one more officer in the team investigating the scam, raising its strength to 40, in view of the workload.

The SC also allowed the CBI to take the help of senior advocate Amarendra Sharan, appearing for the agency in the court, and two other advocates from the bureau’s legal cell, in the preparation of status reports being submitted regularly to the Bench. It also expressed its willingness to appoint senior advocate AR Andyarujina as amicus curiae to help the Bench in hearing the PILs and perusing CBI’s status reports, but an order would be passed after taking his consent.

Meanwhile, the CBI told the SC that it had registered two cases and examined five government officials in connection with the missing files relating to coal block allocations. A CBI officer told the court that the agency was yet to receive two crucial files, including the one containing the minutes of the meetings of the screening committee that had cleared the allocations. The CBI today filed another status report on its investigations. The SC asked the agency to file the next report by January 9, which would be considered on January 15. The PILs, seeking cancellation of the coal block allocations for the alleged illegalities in the procedure followed, would come up for hearing again on November 26. The SC’s refusal today to pass an order against Singh is expected to bolster the ongoing election campaign of the Congress for the Assembly polls.