Apex court to hear Manmohan’s appeal on April 1

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, March 29

The Supreme Court will hear on April 1 former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s appeal against the trial court’s summons to him in a coal scam case. Singh’s petition has been listed for hearing by a Bench comprising Justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan. The case has been listed along with the appeal of Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who has also challenged the trial court summons to him in the case.

The trial court of CBI Special Judge Bharat Parashar had, on March 11, named Singh, Birla and four others as accused in a case of alleged criminal conspiracy and corrupt practice in the joint allocation of Talabira coal blocks (II and III) in Odisha to Hindalco, a Birla group company, in 2005. The trial judge has directed them to appear in the court on April 8. The other accused in the case are Hindalco, Shubhendu Amitabh (Group Executive President of ABMPCL), D Bhattacharya (MD of Hindalco) and the then Coal Secretary PC Parakh.

1,000 impersonators held in Patna exam

Patna: After rampant cheating in Bihar's matriculation examinations made headlines, at least 1,000 persons were arrested in the state as some other persons impersonated them during the written examination and physical test for the recruitment of police constables, a police officer said on Sunday. PTI