Supreme Court Clears Ex-PM Manmohan Singh's Name in Coal Block Scam Case

The Supreme Court has cancelled a 2015 order that had summoned former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in a coal block allocation case. The court ruled on Wednesday that the trial court had no valid reason to reject a CBI report that had already cleared him.

A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant along with Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, accepted the CBI's closure reports in the case. These reports had found no evidence against Singh. The bench allowed his appeal and closed the case for good.

Dr. Singh died in December 2024. Even though his death meant the appeal could simply have been dropped, the judges chose to examine the case anyway. They wanted to address the harsh remarks the trial court had made about him.

How the Case Reached the Top Court

Back in 2015, a special CBI court had summoned six people, including Singh, in the coal block case. This happened even though the CBI, after investigating, had already filed reports clearing him of any wrongdoing.

The Supreme Court said the trial judge should have accepted those clearance reports. Instead, the judge rejected them and proceeded with the case, something the top court said went against long-standing legal rules on how such reports should be handled.

Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing Singh, told the bench that while the case had technically become pointless after Singh's death, the negative remarks made by the trial court still needed to be removed. He specifically asked the judges to strike those remarks from the record.

Senior lawyer RS Cheema, representing the CBI, mentioned that some related legal questions in connected cases were still pending. Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi added that, at least in Singh's case, the court should erase the earlier remarks against him.

At one point during the hearing, Sibal noted that public sentiment around such cases has shifted over the years compared to when the case first began.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court set aside the trial court's 2015 order, formally accepted the CBI's closure reports, and closed the matter entirely. The case was part of a larger group of coal block allocation matters being heard together, where judges also discussed whether some issues should be handled by High Courts instead of the Supreme Court going forward.

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