TEAM HERALD
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea to cap the quantity of coal that can be extracted by 42 companies allowed by it to continue mining for six months even while cancelling allotment of their coal blocks.
Delhi lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma, whose petition was among those that led to cancellation of all coal block allocations since 1993, had moved the Court to restrain excessive extraction resorted by these companies since after their mining licences were cancelled by it last month.
Sharma appeared in person before the Bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu to plead that these companies were extracting coal far above their requirements and selling it for commercial gains and hence some quota should be fixed to prevent them from taking undue advantage of the Court’s verdict.
The Bench, which also included Justices Madan B Lokur and A K Sikri, however, rejected his plea, pointing out that the Court can’t revise the verdict that puts no cap on the coal extraction by these lease holders.
“Nobody said that they will not extract the coal. Nowhere it was said that coal extraction would be 100 tonnes, 200 tonnes or 1000 tonnes…. They had the leases. Today we have cancelled them. But in the meanwhile, they have been given time till six months to continue with their operations,” the Chief Justice said, noting that there is no reason for the Court to intervene.
While cancelling all 214 coal blocks allotted since 1993 in its judgment on September 24, the Court had also quashed allotment of 42 that were in operation or at the stage of commencement of operations but with a rider that their cancellation will take place from March 31, 2015 to give time to the government and Coal India Limited (CIL) “to adjust to the changed situation and move forward.”
Chief justice asserted nobody said that they will not extract the coal. Nowhere it was said that coal extraction would be 100 tonnes, 200 tonnes or 1000 tonnes…. They had the leases. Today we have cancelled them… they have been given time till six months to continue with their operations
