The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the Central Bureau of Investigation for delay in completing the investigations in the coal block allocation cases, PTI reported. The apex court will hear the matter next on October 9.

The bench, comprising Justices Madan Lokur, Kurian Joseph and AK Sikri, said the CBI’s investigation in the cases “doesn’t seem to come to an end”. “We require the CBI to file report of the status of investigation in all the pending cases,” the apex court said.

The scandal had surfaced after the Comptroller and Auditor General found discrepancies in government allocations of coalfields during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s term that had led to a loss of around Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the national exchequer. Naveen Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, Hindalco, Essar Power, Tata Steel and Tata Power were among the 25 companies named as beneficiaries in the CAG report. The CBI had filed a chargesheet in the case in April 2015.

In May 2017, a special court in Delhi had sentenced former Coal Secretary HC Gupta, former Joint Secretary KS Kropha and bureaucrat KC Samaria to two years in prison in connection with the case.