Coal Block Scam Case : Supreme Court Gives Clean Chit To Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, 2 Years After His Death ; Shashi Tharoor , Jairam Ramesh React

File Picture : ANI/x

The Supreme Court has closed a criminal case against former prime minister Manmohan Singh in a coal block allocation case while setting aside a summoning order passed against him.

Singh, who passed away on December 27 2024, now stands formally acquitted in the high-profile criminal case. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana accepted the CBI’s closure report giving a clean chit to the former PM and others.

The top court said there was no reason for the trial court judge to turn down closure reports of CBI and take cognisance.

“Due to unfortunate demise of the appellant, this appeal could be disposed of as infructuous. But with a view to consider the aspect of ld. spl. judge taking cognisance and summoning the appellant, we have gone through both closure reports filed by CBI.

“Having regard to the relevant parameters consistently laid down by this court on acceptance of reports of investigating agency, we are satisfied that there was no reason for ld. judge to turn down closure reports of CBI and take cognisance. We allow the appeal and set aside the impugned judgment. As a result, we accept the closure reports of CBI and close the matter,” the bench said.

Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, ex-coal secretary P C Parakh and three others were summoned as accused by a special court in a coal scam case pertaining to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005.

The Supreme Court, however, intervened and stayed the directive.

Singh had 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.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar had summoned the six accused for the alleged offences punishable under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) of the IPC and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

Besides these three, the court had also summoned M/s Hindalco, its officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya as accused in the case.

The case pertains to allocation of Talabira II coal block in Odisha to M/s Hindalco in 2005, when the then Prime Minister Singh was holding the coal portfolio.

Reacting to Supreme Court order,  Senior Congress Leader and General Secretary in charge of Communications , Jairam Ramesh Slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his reaction on x

The PM owes an apology to the nation https://t.co/qVAzhomP8j

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 29, 2026

Four- time MP and Senior Congress Leader, Shashi Tharoor to reacted to the SC order while tagging a newspaper report on wrote , Irony just died again. The cleanest man in Indian politics did not need an SC certificate of his integrity. Instead it is those who sought to implicate him in these charges who ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Irony just died again. The cleanest man in Indian politics did not need an SC certificate of his integrity. Instead it is those who sought to implicate him in these charges who ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. pic.twitter.com/dVrhtSFG0i

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 30, 2026