Supreme Court asks Govt. to file counter affidavit justifying allocation of 164 coal blocks

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Central Government to file counter affidavit with all supporting documents in four weeks justifying the allocation of 164 coal blocks.

Stating that it is concerned urgently with non partisan investigation by CBI, the apex court observed there are a lot of deficiencies in decision taken by the screening committee.

The apex court, which went through the CBI's fresh status report, urged the Centre to file records of all 36 Screening Committee meetings held for coal blocks allocations.

The apex court also sought the investigating agency's view by July 16 on the Centre's affidavit on steps taken to bring functional attorney in the CBI.

The CBI had filed a report in the Supreme Court on coal scam earlier this week in which it stated that it will abide by the apex court's direction and not share any details of their investigation in the coal gate scam.

The investigating agency, however, said that it may need to share information in cases where they need to seek the government's sanction for prosecution.

Recently, the CBI had to share information with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs while summoning former Coal Secretary HC Gupta as an accused.

The Corporate Affairs Ministry refused to give sanction till they had details of evidence against Gupta.

The CBI also informed the court about the developments in its investigations.