The Supreme Court today declared that all coal mining rights assigned 1993 and 2010 were assigned illegally by the government in a process that lacked transparency in the absence of a competitive bidding system.
The SC said the allocations were arbitrary, non-transparent and against public interest.
However, the SC allowed the coal block allocations to ultra-mega power projects to continue but bars them from using the coal for any purpose, read commercial exploitation, other than captive consumption.
The allocation of coal licenses has been the subject of a CBI investigation that is being monitored by the Supreme Court since the state auditor said in 2012 that 1.83 lakh crores had been lost because coal rights were not auctioned.The SC judgment prima facie puts huge burden on coal scam case accused as they would now find it difficult to say no wrong was committed in allocation of coal block.
