SC tells CBI not to take orders from its political masters

11:46 am: CPI leader D Raja said that the Prime Minister must own up the responsibility and explain his stand. He, however, fell short of demanding the Prime Minister's resignation.

Also read: Coal scam: Govt backs Law Minister as Oppn asks him to quit

11:44 am: Clamour is growing for both the Prime Minister and the Law Minister's resignation. "The Supreme Court's observations are very very serious. The Prime Minister must resign now," BJP leader Balbir Punj said.

11:39 am: CPI leader D Raja demanded that the law minister be sacked. "Parliament should take a serious note of this. The law minister cannot continue in his position now. The Prime Minister must act. This is a serious breach in the functioning of the CBI," D Raja said.

11:35 am: The Supreme Court said that this suppression by the CBI that it shared the coal scam status report with the law minister is not ordinary.

11:33 am: The Supreme Court is coming down heavily on the CBI and has told the agency not to take any instructions from its political masters.

11:31 am: Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Parliamentary Affairs minister Kamal Nath, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari are holding a meeting.

11:27 am: The court questioned as to why it was kept in the dark about sharing of information with the government officials.

11:23 am: The Supreme Court has also said that the CBI must not be influenced by its political masters. "The CBI's independent position must be restored. Our first exercise will be to liberate CBI from political interference," the court said.

The Opposition has hit out at the Prime Minister saying he is involved. BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the Opposition will not let Parliament run till the Law Minister and the Prime Minister resign. "The charges are against the PM himself. SC says it is disturbed by the facts and the information being shared. If the PM still wants to stay in power, people will lose faith in the government. What more proof do you need against the PM," Rudy said.

11:09 am: The Supreme Court has said that the details in the CBI affidavit on the coal scam are 'very disturbing'. "There has been a massive breach of trust that has shaken our foundation," the apex court said. The court said sharing information with the government has shaken the entire process.

Earlier, CBI sources had said that changes were made in the status report on coal scam after a meeting with law minister Ashwani Kumar. CBI sources said they will not hide anything from the Supreme Court, which was hearing the case on Tuesday and will decide whether the government tried to influence the CBI probe.

The CBI had on Friday filed its affidavit on the coal block allocation scam report with the Supreme Court, in which agency director Ranjit Sinha had said that the draft report was shared with the law minister, a charge the Congress has rejected. The director had also said the draft of the report was even shared with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Coal Ministry officials.

The CBI would submit both the status reports to the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a sealed envelope, sources had said. In March, the probe agency had said in its status report that many companies were given coal blocks through false representations and that there was no rationale for allocation of the blocks. The Supreme Court had ordered the CBI not to share the report with the government. It has also asked the Centre to explain why a small group of companies were favoured.