Are missing coal files bid to destroy records,Supreme Court asks Centre

Related: SC pulls up CBI over slow probe in coalgate case

Going through the list of documents required by the CBI,the court said,“You just cannot sit over the documents. All documents considered necessary by the CBI have to be made available. There cannot be any justification for not providing them. And if you cannot,cases have to be registered with the CBI.”

Related: Govt mining for coal files,applications

Terming it as “lack of support” for the CBI,the bench,also comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph,said the ministry must register criminal cases if the records had been destroyed or stolen or tampered with.

As the bench expressed its inclination to pass an order on a CBI inquiry into the missing files,Attorney General G E Vahanvati agreed to record his undertaking that the ministry would provide all the required documents to the CBI within two weeks of getting a consolidated list and would also register cases with the agency if it failed to trace some files.

Related: Govt mining for coal files,applications

The court pointed out that most of the missing records were related to opinions by Coal India Ltd on the financial health of an entity for awarding coal blocks. “Wherever a prima facie case relating to financial aspect is concerned,report of CIL is missing. These are very important reports and relate to eligibility criteria of the companies,” said the bench.