SC: Don’t share coal info with govt
The Supreme Court on Wednesday made it clear that the CBI should not share any information with the government on its investigation into alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks for mining.
The apex court said that by sharing any information on its probe with the government, the agency would become vulnerable to extraneous influence. “Your application to share some information with the government makes you give by one hand and take by another,” said a bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha.
In June, the CBI had told the court that it has to share some details on the probe with the government as it needs the government’s sanction to prosecute its officers and public servants.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the government’s sanction to prosecute its officers should not be needed in cases that are being monitored by the court.
The Centre’s counsel, however, argued against giving up its sanctioning authority, citing “serious objections as this would have serious consequences.”
Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati said doing away with the government’s nod would have a serious impact on all court-monitored cases.
“The power of sanction is only to protect officers,” the attorney general argued.
On the CBI’s plea requesting for lifting of restrictions imposed on it from changing the 33-member investigation team, the bench considered the agency’s request for expanding the probe team as the scope of investigation has widened significantly.
The court further allowed the CBI to remove tainted SP Vivek Dutt from its Coalgate probe team.
However, the apex court turned down CBI’s plea to shift DIG Ravi Kant, probing coal block allocations between 2006 and 2009.
In May, the Supreme Court had rebuked the CBI for turning into “a caged parrot” after the agency admitted that it had shared a confidential report on the case with officials in the law minister’s and Prime Minister’s offices before it was submitted before the court. That disclosure forced Ashwani Kumar to resign as law minister.
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