Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a trial court order summoning former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and five others in a coal scam case.
The apex court also issued a notice to the CBI in connection with the matter and sought its reply within three weeks.
PM has plenary powers and his administrative decisions can't be termed illegal, said Kapil Sibal on behalf of Singh.
During the hearing, Sibal also raised the issue of lack of sanction to prosecute Manmohan Singh in the case.
SC has also issued a notice to the Centre on a separate plea challenging constitutional validity of a provision of Prevention of Corruption Act.
Manmohan Singh had moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the summons against him and stay of criminal proceedings in a CBI court in the coal block allocation case in which he has been named as an accused.
Singh was ordered last month to appear in a CBI court on April 8 over accusations of criminal conspiracy and corruption in the alleged illegal award of a coal field in Odisha.
The Special CBI court had earlier rejected the CBI's closure plea and issued summons to Singh, PC Parakh, Kumar Manglam Birla along with Hindalco, an Aditya Birla Group company, and its two top officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya, seeking their appearance before it as accused on April 8.
In his plea, the former PM contended that there was no criminal intent on his part as layered administrative making mechanism was involved in the process.
Singh had only taken a decision as a competent authority on allocation of Talabira II coal block to Hindalco on the representation of the Odisha government, the petition said.
According to the SC website, the apex court would also hear simultaneously on April 1 the petitions filed by Hindalco and Bhattacharya.
