NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the fate of 218 coal blocks whose allocation was declared by it as arbitrary, non-transparent and illegal last month.
It, however, cannot hold back the final outcome beyond September 26 since Chief Justice R M Lodha presiding over the bench retires that day.
There should be no surprise if the fate is kept hanging in case of 46 coal blocks under production or ready for production that the government does not want to be cancelled as the court had itself hinted while declaring all coal block allocations as illegal on August 25 that it may leave the matter in the hands of a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to decide the penalty to be imposed on the illegal mining already done.
The bench, which had Justices Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph as the other two judges, reserved its verdict on the consequences of its August 25 judgment in the Coalgate scam after a day-long hearing, appreciating the government’s offer to let the court cancel licences to all coal mines as it is ready with the process of auction for re-allocation.
The government, however, sought leniency in case of 46 of the coal blocks declared as illegal because of the allocation infirmities on the ground that 40 of them are in production for years and six others are all set to commence production any time.
On August 25, the bench had declared all coal licences issued since 1993 by the successive governments as illegal because a transparent bidding process was not followed. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi reiterated at the start of the day’s hearing that the the government is open to re-auctioning the coal blocks if their allocations are revoked.
In its affidavit filed last week, the government had pleaded that 40 mines which are already under production should be spared from cancellation of their licences but instead the companies running these mines should be made to pay cess on the coal they produced, using the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report of 2012 bringing out the money lost by the exchequer.
The government’s worry is that shutting down these mines would create a major power crisis for want of coal and also affect other industries like cement and steel that may overturn the industrial recovery witnessed by the country since it came to power in May.
The companies that stand to be affected also pleaded that they have invested huge amounts in the 40 coal blocks and cancellation of their licences would cause them irreparable loss. They opposed the cess proposed by the government and wanted the court to better set up a committee to examine the issue of cancellation or fining them with cess.
The attorney general, however, opposed the matter lingering on by forming a committee, asserting that any such step would dilute the thrust of the August 25 verdict.
