Supreme Court dismisses plea seeking PM affidavit on coal

Sharma had moved the apex court Oct 21 asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explain the allocation of 150 coal blocks as he had done while defending the allocation of Talabira-II Coal block in Odisha to Aditya Birla Group's Hindalco.

He Tuesday moved an application, saying, "...for the first time since the coal block allocation scam came up, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has explained about one allocation. But there have been more than 150 coal block allocations, so will he be able to explain all of them".

The court Tuesday asked the government to spell out its view on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea that its director should be vested with the status of being ex-officio secretary to the government so that he could communicate with the minister for personnel directly without wading through the bureaucratic web.