The court had summoned Manmohan Singh as an accused in the coal scam, his/her wish to erase this stain remained unfulfilled.

New Delhi:his/her desire to wash away the stain of coal scam on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh remained unfulfilled. A Delhi court had made him/her an accused in a coal block allocation case. Due to this his/her clean image was tarnished. The Supreme Court had quashed the coal block allocation made during the UPA government and directed the trial court to prosecute under the Prevention of Corruption Act. In March 2015, the trial court had summoned the former prime minister as an accused in the Talabira-II coal block allocation case to Hindalco.Challenge the order in the Supreme Court
Manmohan Singh had challenged the summoning order in the Supreme Court. They wanted to avoid appearing in court as accused. On April 1, 2015, a Supreme Court bench headed by V. Gopala Gowda stayed the summons order and decided to hear Singh’s petition. The CBI had filed a closure report in this case, yet the lower court had summoned Singh. The judge had said the CBI’s closure report was unfair as there was prima facie evidence against Manmohan Singh, who was then in-charge of the coal ministry, and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and others.

Kapil Sibal had then sought answers from CJI
The Supreme Court had stayed the summoning order against the former Prime Minister, but a bench headed by Justice Madan Lokur had refused to stay the summoning order against former Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagdodia. The court had said that Bagdodia’s petition would be heard along with Singh’s petition on September 2, 2015. Concerned about this decision of the Supreme Court, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal had sought clarification from the then CJI HL Dattu. he/she had said that Singh’s petition should not be categorized as cases related to the coal scam because the main issue of his/her petition was related to the constitutional validity of Section 13(1)(d)(iii) of the PC Act.

What order did CJI Dattu give then?
CJI agreed with Dattu Sibal and ordered separation of Singh’s petition from Bagdodia’s appeal. A bench headed by CJI Dattu said that Singh’s petition would be heard only if his/her lawyers sought an early hearing after all the arguments were completed. After retirement, Justice Dattu had said that he/she could not see a “former Prime Minister with a very clean image” facing trial as an accused in a case based on his/her party’s political decisions. Justice Dattu had said, “I could not see a very clean former Prime Minister facing trial as an accused in a case the basis of which was his/her party’s political decisions.”

Now this petition will become ineffective due to the death of the petitioner. This matter also ended with the death of Manmohan Singh. he/she died before the final decision in this case was given, due to which his/her name could not be completely cleared in the coal block allocation case. This matter remained a stain on his/her political career. The case also highlighted the complexities of the judicial process. Many times, despite a long legal battle, there is a delay in getting justice and sometimes justice is not given at all. This case is also one such example.