Coal news and updates

The Supreme Court on Tuesday hinted at setting up a 2G-style special court along with independent prosecutors to ensure a free, fair, objective and logical conclusion to the cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the allegedly illegal allotment of coal blocks between 1993 and 2005.

 

The top court also directed the CBI director to act in accordance with Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) advice in all cases in which there was a difference of opinion between the CBI official dealing with a case and the headquarters.

 

All such cases had been earlier referred to the CVC for its advisory opinion after accusations of a cover-up by public interest litigation (PIL) petitioners in the case The top court, acting on twin petitions seeking court intervention to ensure a fair probe into the allotments to private companies, had asked the CBI to probe all such allotments which span both the NDA and UPA regimes. The CBI is nowhere at the end of its investigations, but has filed some cases regarding a few allotments. The top court now wants to ensure a fair trial in these cases.

 

The court has since directed the agency to have its decisions -- not to convert preliminary enquiries in several such cases into registered cases -- vetted by the CVC.

 

The court also asked additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, appearing for the central government, to facilitate the process.

 

Meanwhile, a senior CBI official on Tuesday evening said the agency has decided to lodge five fresh First Information Reports (FIRs) against as many or more companies in the coal scam based on the CVC's recommendation.

 

CBI had earlier closed preliminary enquiries in these matters with the agency director ruling that no criminality had been found, despite there being a difference in opinion within the CBI team on the fate of these enquiries.

 

CVC was then asked by the Supreme Court to look into all PEs closed by the CBI. Before adjourning the hearing, the court also sought to know why the CBI had failed to complete its probe into the coal block allocations by December 2013 as promised.

 

Sharan blamed the delay on voluminous documents submitted by states in connection with allocations by them for the delay. "All retired officers' (between 1993 and 2005) statements have to be recorded. This requires enormous time. We are working on it," he said. 

 

 

Source: ET