New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not be listed as an accused in the CBI's case that deals with alleged corruption and irregularities in the allocation of coal fields to private firms.
The court also dismissed a plea which said that the Prime Minister should be ordered to file an affidavit in the case.
The judges said that the "probe is still going on" by the CBI.
The opposition has been demanding the PM's resignation since the national auditor said in 2012 that Rs 1.86 lakh crores were lost because the government did not auction coal fields.
Since then, the CBI has said that mining rights were under-priced and given to firms that were ineligible. For some of the years under scrutiny, the PM held direct charge of the Coal Ministry.
The opposition has said that its stand has been proven correct by the most recent case filed by the CBI.
Earlier this month, the agency said that in 2005, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary PC Parakh conspired to ensure that the entrepreneur's firm, Hindalco, was given two coal blocks in Odisha.
The PM's office has accepted that he endorsed that decision, which it described in a statement as "entirely appropriate."
Last week, Dr Manmohan Singh said that he is willing to be questioned by the CBI. "I have nothing to hide," he told reporters.