The Supreme Court declared that all coal mining rights between 1992 and 2008 were assigned illegally by the government in a process that lacked transparency in the absence of a competitive bidding system or auction
The Supreme Court on Monday has said all coal block allocations since 1993 till 2010 before pre-auction era have been done in an illegal manner. However, the apex court said, further hearing is required to determine whether there is a need for cancelling 218 coal block allocations.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha said, the coal block allocation done by screening committee was not fair and transparent. "All allocations were done in illegal manner and suffers from vice of arbitrariness. No objective criteria was followed and guidelines were breached in coal block allocations," the Bench said.
The Supreme Court examined alleged irregularities in the allocation of about 194 coal blocks in Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh to private companies and parties during 2004 to March 2011.
The Court said it would appoint a high-level committee of retired judges to identify those who will be affected by its order. The Bench also said it will address the issue of the legal consequences of its ruling on 1 September 2014, when it creates a committee to identify those whose allocations will be cancelled.
Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report submitted in the Parliament in August 2012, has stated that there had been an estimated loss of Rs1.86 lakh crore due to coal block allocation without auction from 2005 to 2009.
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Why has SC not played its independent role top protect the citizens of such arbitrary allocations???