GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 29, set aside a 2015 order passed by a Special CBI Court that had summoned former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in a coal block allocation case, ruling that the trial court had no valid grounds to reject the CBI’s closure report and proceed against him.
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A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, allowed the appeal filed by Dr. Singh, accepted the CBI’s closure reports that had cleared him of wrongdoing, and brought the proceedings against him to a close.
Dr. Singh passed away in December 2024, but the Court chose to rule on the legality of the trial court’s order as it contained critical observations against him that his legal team sought to have removed.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the late former Prime Minister, told the Bench that while the appeal could technically be treated as infructuous following Singh’s death, the adverse remarks recorded by the trial court still needed to be addressed and expunged. When the Chief Justice suggested that the matter could simply be disposed of, Sibal argued that the cognizance order and the accompanying observations against Singh required formal setting aside.
Senior Advocate R.S. Cheema, representing the CBI, noted that questions relating to the validity of certain legal provisions remained pending in related cases. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi added that, at the very least, the adverse remarks concerning Dr. Singh should be removed from the record.
Explaining its decision to examine the matter despite Singh’s death, the Bench noted that it had reviewed both closure reports submitted by the CBI to assess whether the Special Judge was justified in summoning him. The Court found that the trial judge had failed to follow the established legal standards governing the evaluation of closure reports submitted by investigating agencies.
The Supreme Court concluded that there was no basis for rejecting the CBI’s findings and taking cognizance against Dr. Singh in the case. It allowed the appeal, overturned the Special Judge’s cognizance order, accepted the CBI’s closure reports, and closed the proceedings.
The ruling came during proceedings in a larger batch of coal block allocation cases, where the Bench also considered which pending issues required further attention and which could be left for High Courts to decide. During the hearing, Sibal also remarked that public sentiment surrounding the case had changed considerably since the allegations first surfaced, contrasting the political climate of that period with the present day.