New Delhi: In what would come as a blow to the Congress-led UPA government, the Supreme Court today pulled it up for not responding "comprehensively" on alleged irregularities in the 2009 coal block allocations. The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to file records of all 36 steering committee meetings for coal blocks allocation.
Examining the CBI's status report in the coal case, the court observed that the 'CBI seems to be struggling with the probe...documents to support the report were not being made available by the government.'
The CBI had, on Monday, submitted its progress report on the probe into the allocation of coal blocks in a sealed cover. In its report, the CBI has reportedly said that while they will abide by the Supreme Court's direction and not share any details of their investigation, they may have to in special circumstances - like in the event of seeking the government's sanction for prosecution.
This happened recently when the CBI had to tell the Ministry of Corporate Affairs why they were summoning former Coal Secretary HC Gupta as an accused. The ministry refused to give sanction till they had details of evidence against Mr Gupta.
The Court today asked why the CBI should need the government's sanction to prosecute officials and public servants, saying, "The supervision of the CBI is entrusted with the CVC. The Centre has no role. How can the CBI say government permission is needed for sanction? We need to discuss this." (Read: Parliament will decide on CBI's autonomy, says Supreme Court)
The Supreme Court had, during the last hearing, said that only the investigating officers and the CBI Director should know the details of the probe. The top court had taken strong exception to the fact that then Law Minister Ashwani Kumar as well as officials from the Prime Minister's Office and the Coal Ministry had vetted the CBI's status report on its investigations into what is known as Coal-gate.
Describing the CBI's functioning as one of a "caged parrot that speaks in different voices of different masters", an angry court had asked the Centre to come up with a legislation to grant functional autonomy to the premier investigation agency.
The government, last week, submitted a 41-page affidavit which proposed that the Director of the CBI will be selected by a three-member panel comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India. But the agency has been denied the right to hire its own lawyers, which would have given it greater autonomy in politically sensitive investigations. And though its budget has been enhanced, expenses, even minor ones like an officer traveling abroad, still need the government's sanction.
The Supreme Court today said that the law will have to be amended to give more autonomy to the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI and that Parliament will ultimately have to debate and approve suggestions made by the Centre to free the agency from political control.
The coal inquiry is especially sensitive for the government because for some of the years under scrutiny, the Prime Minister held direct charge of the Coal Ministry. That has led to the opposition demanding his resignation.
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