The Supreme Court on Monday fined a lawyer Rs1 lakh for filing a petition to include Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as an accused in the coal block allocation scam involving Hindalco. Appearing before a Bench of Justices V Gopal Gowda and C Nagappan, advocate Nagendra Kumar Sahoo questioned the March 11, 2015 order passed by the Special Judge hearing the coal scam cases, by which summons were issued to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to appear as an accused in his capacity as the then Coal Minister for allocating Talabira coal blocks in Odisha to Hindalco.
Sahoo through his counsel Suresh Tripathi argued that the Special Judge summoned Singh for “procuring” the allocation on a letter written by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, making him equally liable to face trial along with other accused including industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary PC Parakh.