(This story originally appeared in on Mar 21, 2015)

NEW DELHI: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh is likely to move the Supreme Court next week to challenge a trial court's decision to summon him as an accused in the alleged irregular allotment of Talabira-II coal block to a joint venture of Hindalco.

Lawyers involved in preparing the special leave petition for Singh said the groundwork and research for finalization of the appeal had been completed and senior advocates Kapil Sibal and K T S Tulsi would soon give the final touches. "The appeal is likely to be filed in the Supreme Court next week," they said.

On March 13, two days after the trial court had summoned Singh, TOI had reported that the ex-PM would move the Supreme Court to challenge the trial court order as the option of moving the Delhi High Court was blocked by the apex court's July 25, 2014 order which said, "We make it clear that any prayer for stay or impeding the progress in the investigation/trial can be made only before this court and no other court shall entertain the same."

The trial judge had said Singh as coal minister had allowed reopening of the Talabira-II allocation "even though he himself had permitted approval of the minutes of 25th screening committee recommending allocation of the same block to Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), a PSU".

"Repeated reminders from PMO, written as well as telephonic, to ministry of coal to expeditiously process the matter in view of letters received from Kumar Mangalam Birla prime facie indicate the extra undue interest shown by PMO in the matter," the trial judge had said.

Singh's action, the judge had said, defeated NLC's efforts to set up a 2,000 mw power plant in Odisha. "His action prima facie resulted in loss to NLC, a PSU, and facilitated windfall profits to a private company, Hindalco," the judge said.