She said that the CAG gave its “opinion in addition to auditing” on the coal block allocation but the Supreme Court has now said that “the step taken by the government was not wrong”.

The BJP has criticised the Congress and the government saying no attempt should be made to use the judgement to justify wrong decisions and malign or forewarn constitutional authorities.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman hit out at the Union Cabinet ministers who had said on Friday that the Supreme Court observation about auction not being the sole method of allocation of natural resources vindicated their stand. The ministers had also said CAG should keep this mind while doing its job.