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Coal block allocations since 1993 illegal: SC
Court remains silent on cancellation of allotments
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, August 25
The Supreme Court today declared as "arbitrary and illegal" all coal block allocations made on the recommendations of the screening committee since July 1993, but said "further hearing" was required to decide the "consequences".

A three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha delivered the 163-page verdict on a batch of PILs seeking cancellation of about 250 coal block allocations, including 101 for the steel sector, 97 for the power industry, 10 for cement companies and 37 for commercial use.

The screening committee had made its recommendations on the basis of 36 meetings held during the period. "The committee has never been consistent, it has not been transparent, there is no proper application of mind... relevant factors have seldom been its guiding factors, there was no transparency," the Bench observed.

"The approach had been ad hoc and casual. There was no fair and transparent procedure, resulting in unfair distribution of the national wealth. Common good and public interest have thus suffered heavily," the Bench, which included Justices Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, said.

The judgment did not specify that it was quashing or cancelling the allocations. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for one of the PIL petitioners, NGO Common Cause, said in a statement issued through his junior that "only an idiot can argue that a thing is illegal, but is not cancelled as some lawyers were trying to do." "The only question that the court has left open is that those few cases where the state governments have signed mining leases and people are actually mining, what would happen to that, for which hearing is on September 1," the statement said.

The petitioners and other parties to the case were welcome to make "better suggestions," the Chief Justice said.

The apex court clarified that coal blocks allocated through competitive bidding for the lowest tariff for power for ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) "may not be cancelled".

What the court said