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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed its status report in the Supreme Court on the coal allocation scam.
To ensure that there is no political interference in the process, the apex court has asked the CBI Director to file an affidavit stating that the status report will not be shared with political executives. The Supreme Court has also sought an explanation from the Government.
Both CBI and the Coal Ministry declined to comment on the developments in the Court.
PTI adds: The investigative agency has said that Government made coal block allocations without ‘verifying the credentials of companies which allegedly misrepresented facts about themselves.’
A three-judge bench headed by Justice R. M. Lodha, which went through the report filed in a sealed cover, said that the report prima facie alleges irregularities, but the Attorney General G. E. Vahanvati aggressively hit back on the finding saying, “CBI is not the final word on this.”
The court also asked the CBI Director, Ranjit Sinha, to file an affidavit that the status report submitted by the agency on March 8 was “vetted by him and not shared with political executives” and the same will be followed in future.
The Supreme Court bench directed the Government to explain why a small group of companies have been “picked and chosen” for allocation of coal blocks out of the large number of companies that applied for it.
The apex court also observed that procedure followed prima facie does not seem to be proper legal procedure.
“Therefore, I just want to know whether the entire factual position has been stated (in Government’s affidavit) or something more is to be said,” the court said.
On January 24, the apex court had questioned the Centre’s power to allocate coal blocks to companies, saying it has a lot of “legal explanation” to do as the statutory Act empowers only the states to undertake this task.
The court had said that the Centre cannot undermine the Mines and Minerals Act which has given no power to it to allocate coal block to companies.
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