SC refuses to bring ex-coal ministers

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to bring former coal ministers, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had held the portfolio during the UPA government, under scrutiny for criminal liabilities in the coal blocks allocation scam. "We decline to entertain the plea," a Bench said, while rejecting the plea of advocate M L Sharma, one of the petitioners. The apex court had delivered the landmark verdict holding as illegal the coal blocks allocation from 1993 to 2010, quashing 214 of 218 of them.