New Delhi : A special court on Tuesday reserved for December 19 its order on an application by Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) Director R S Rungta, an accused in a coal block allocation scam case, seeking to summon former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a witness in his defence.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar fixed the matter for pronouncement of the order on the application, which also seeks to summon former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao as a defence witness.

Rungta’s counsel, who also sought summoning of various documents, argued that these two witnesses would depose about the genuineness of the documents brought from their respective offices, that is the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Ministry of Coal.

During the arguments, the court asked the defence counsel to explain why it was relevant to summon Singh and Rao as defence witnesses in the case.