Sinha faced the biggest embarrassment in the twilight of his professional career as the court not only removed him from 2G scam cases but also observed that the charge against him of protecting some accused appeared to be "prima facie credible" and "required to be accepted".
The silver lining for CBI, which has been facing flak for its probe in several high-profile cases, was the long awaited ruling by a constitution bench which struck down the provision in the law mandating prior sanction of competent authority to probe and prosecute officials above the joint secretary level which had cropped up repeatedly during the coalgate matters.
It put the curtains down on the fate of 214 out of 218 coal blocks and consequential investments of around Rs 2 lakh crore and subsequent attempts of big corporates to wriggle out also proved futile as it shot them down.
The burning issue and Narendra Modi government's pre-poll plank of bringing black money stashed in tax heavens also kept busy the top court which first shot down the last-ditch effort made by the outgoing UPA-II regime to get away with its order on SIT on May 16, the day when the NDA emerged winner in the general election.