Coalgate: Centre faces SC’s ire, told to give files to CBI
30 Aug 2013 11:09 PM GMT
The central government had a tough time in the Supreme Court on Thursday during the hearing of the coal block allocation case. It was slammed by the court on missing files on coal block allocation case and not sharing information with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The investigating agency also had a tough time in the court on the slow pace of investigation in the case and the agency told the court that it hoped to complete its investigation in the case by December.
A bench comprising of Justice R M Lodha, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph directed the government to hand over the relevant documents within two weeks to CBI. It also directed, holding that the missing documents are vital for the probe in the scam, the Coal Ministry to lodge complaint with the CBI if it fails to trace any documents sought by CBI.
The court asked CBI to give a list of documents, files, information sought by it to the Coal Ministry within five days and the ministry would furnish them within two weeks thereafter. If any document remain untraceable, the FIRs have to be lodged by the ministry with the CBI within a week thereafter.
The court slammed Centre for not lodging FIRs on missing files and raised a question as to whether ‘it is an attempt to destroy the records in the case’. ‘You cannot do like this. Your explanation that files are being searched is not reasonable. This will not help’, the bench said.
Slamming the government, the bench said, 'Four months have passed. Have you filed an FIR for missing files. It is an attempt to destroy the records. Truth must come out,' said the bench while noting that missing documents pertain to financial aspects of the coal block allocations.
‘This cannot be left as it is. Why a case has not been registered so far? Proper report has to be lodged to find out whether it has been stolen or destroyed. This cannot be allowed. Some investigation has to be done on the issue’, said the court.
A bench comprising of Justice R M Lodha, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph directed the government to hand over the relevant documents within two weeks to CBI. It also directed, holding that the missing documents are vital for the probe in the scam, the Coal Ministry to lodge complaint with the CBI if it fails to trace any documents sought by CBI.
The court asked CBI to give a list of documents, files, information sought by it to the Coal Ministry within five days and the ministry would furnish them within two weeks thereafter. If any document remain untraceable, the FIRs have to be lodged by the ministry with the CBI within a week thereafter.
The court slammed Centre for not lodging FIRs on missing files and raised a question as to whether ‘it is an attempt to destroy the records in the case’. ‘You cannot do like this. Your explanation that files are being searched is not reasonable. This will not help’, the bench said.
Slamming the government, the bench said, 'Four months have passed. Have you filed an FIR for missing files. It is an attempt to destroy the records. Truth must come out,' said the bench while noting that missing documents pertain to financial aspects of the coal block allocations.
‘This cannot be left as it is. Why a case has not been registered so far? Proper report has to be lodged to find out whether it has been stolen or destroyed. This cannot be allowed. Some investigation has to be done on the issue’, said the court.
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