Coal Minister cannot give a go by to the established procedure and guidelines on the issue of coal block allocation while exercising discretion conferred on him as any contravention of the settled process would be "clearly bad in law", a special court today observed.
While deliberating the role of coal minister in general, the court said "arbitrary and subjective exercise of power" in disregard to the settled procedure or guidelines prima facie makes out a case of transgressing the fine line of distinction which makes the act to be criminal in nature.
Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar made the observations in its order summoning as accused former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was the then Coal Minister, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, his company M/s HINDALCO and its two officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya in a case pertaining to allocation of Talabira II coal block in Odisha to HINDALCO.
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"Clearly the exercise of any discretion even if any such discretion vested in Minister of Coal cannot be arbitrary in nature.
"In view of the already laid down procedure for allocation of coal blocks and consequent guidelines which also already stood approved I may even state that no such discretion contrary to the established procedure and guidelines at all vested in the Minister of Coal and thus exercising any such power in contravention of well laid down procedure or guidelines was clearly bad in law," the judge said.
The court added that arbitrary and subjective exercise of power in disregard to the settled procedure or guidelines prima facie makes out a case of transgressing that fine line of distinction which makes such an act to be criminal in nature.
