The CBI is likely to furnish the Supreme Court a list of coal blocks in which the agency has not found any criminality in the allocation process and will recommend closure of inquiry in those cases.
The agency is probing allocation of 195 coal blocks which are covered under three Preliminary Enquiries (PEs) registered by it — allotments between 2006 and 2009, allocations between 1993 and 2004, and projects given under Government dispensation category.
During the enquiry, the agency has found that a number of these blocks were allocated according to the existing norms and there was no corruption involved. Sources said CBI would give a list of such blocks to the Supreme Court during the hearing on November 26 with a request that further probe into these coal blocks can be closed as no criminality was involved. A final view would be taken by the apex court which might direct the agency on the road ahead, the sources added. The CBI has registered 14 regular cases and chargesheets would be filed in the trial court in due course, the sources said.
The agency will also submit an affidavit on the issue of its autonomy in the backdrop of the government’s stand that no further powers can be given to CBI. The agency is demanding the rank of a Secretary to the Government for India for its Director but these demands have been turned down by the Centre through an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on November 13.
Presently, the CBI chief enjoys the rank equivalent to the Director General of a para-military force. CBI wants enhanced authority for smooth administrative functioning, the sources said. In its affidavit in the coal case filed last week, the Centre had said such powers will have a deleterious effect on criminal justice system and it would be bad in law if such demands are met which would result in “vesting unbridled power in one authority”.