The Supreme Court today made it clear that the appeal of former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, challenging the trial court order summoning him as an accused in a coal scam case, would be heard by a special bench which has been hearing such cases.
The observation was made by a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu when senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Dr. Singh, sought an early hearing of the appeal filed by former Prime Minister. The bench, also comprising justice Arun Mishra, said that this matter will be listed next week.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered deletion from its list of business of September 21 the batch of appeals filed by Dr. Singh and others. The apex court had on April 1 stayed the trial court order summoning former PM as accused in a coal block allocation case and the proceedings before it.
The relief was also extended to Hindalco Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, whose company was granted Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005, former Coal Secretary P C Parakh, two Hindalco officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya and the company itself. While staying trial court’s order, the apex court had said that the consequential proceedings arising out of the summoning order shall also remain stayed.