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SC reserves verdict on coal blocks
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SME Times News Bureau | 10 Sep, 2014
The Supreme Court Tuesday reserved its verdict on the fate of 218 coal
blocks whose allocation since 1993 it had held to be arbitrary,
non-transparent and illegal.
A bench of Chief Justice R.M. Lodha,
Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph reserved the verdict
after a day-long hearing on the consequences of its decision declaring
the allocation process by the steering committee and under government
dispensation arbitrary and illegal.
The hearing saw the
government opposing the plea by the coal block allottees and other stake
holders - power producers and sponge iron manufacturers - represented
by their associations, for the grant of individual hearing by a
committee to determine their innocence and look into the investments
already made by them on the coal blocks allocated to them.
"According
to me, individual hearing is not required. We don't want another impact
of the judgment" and illegal allocations must go, said Attorney General
Mukul Rohatgi.
The apex court Aug 25 had suggested a three
member committee headed by a retired apex court judge to go into each of
the cases before taking a final call on their fate, but the suggestion
was opposed by the government in the subsequent hearing of the matter on
Sep 1.
At the outset of the hearing Tuesday, the government told
the court that it favoured auction of all the 218 blocks, but if the
court so agreed, then 40 coal blocks which are already in production for
years and six other coal blocks in which production can commence any
time may be exempted.
Defending the classification of 40 plus
six, Rohatgi said that they were already in production and in some cases
for years and they were both in public and private holdings.
He
reiterated that the court's Aug 25 verdict had held that coal blocks
were allocated in an illegal, arbitrary, non-transparent and thus its
logical consequence is that all must be cancelled.
"This
(allocation) is found to be illegal and the result of illegality is that
all must go and be cancelled", Rohatgi said, adding that "this is the
only way we can go forward and we have applied our mind to all the
options."
He said that one option is let the 40 mines go, on as
it is, till an alternate transaction takes place or alternately
state-run Coal India Ltd would step in to take over the operation
without affecting the existing work force.
Appearing for an
association representing 26 coal block allottees, senior counsel
K.K.Venugopal drew the court's attention on the impact of cancellation
on the economy, power sector, iron and steel industry, and
socio-economic development of the areas where the blocks are.
He
cited statistics to show the colossal loss that would be caused to the
economy if the allocations were cancelled, and advocated each person
should be heard by a committee which in turn should send its report to
the apex court. He also resisted imposing Rs.295 penalty per tonne of
coal.
Saying that he was not finding any fault with the apex
court judgment, senior counsel Harish Salve told the court that the
central government had misled it but the court objected to this
"This is not a fact. You must not say that," the court said.
"Your
argument that you (client) have not done anything wrong will not take
us forward. We are not concerned whether you have done any wrong. We are
concerned that a wrong procedure was followed (in allocations)," Chief
Justice Lodha told Salve.
Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing
for one of the private parties, urged the court not to distinguish
between 46 mining leases and others as it "distorts the level playing
field" and merely because someone gets mining leases earlier than others
and commences mining operations, he could not escape the consequences
visiting other allottees.
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Coal Mines Allotment
M.ILANGOVAN. | Tue Sep 23 06:17:14 2014
If Apex Court cancels the Allotments, No one will have the confidence on the Court or with the Government. Henceforth the Government should have correct policies for allotments. The entire country economics depends on this core mining. The Investors should have the confidence on the Government. Then only they will invest in such big projects.
How to allot Coal Block in India For Further development in the country
Vijay Goyal | Wed Sep 10 04:10:41 2014
How to allot Coal Block in India For Further development in the country.
The auction route to allot the coalmines will stop further development in the country. by allocating coal mines for captive use will totally stop label playing opportunities for whom those not having their own coal blocks for captive use.
So I suggest Govt. of India has to allot the coal block for to develop the mines & mine the coal (mining Job work only) through open auction biding Process. Their after Govt. of India Fix the Price of Coal Grade wise (yearly on 15 march) valid from one year starting from 1 April to 31 march. For the actual users the govt. have to provide linkage facility as he is presently use to allot coal.
Linkage Quantity of Coal should be based on the basis of his last year consumption based on his production records submitted to Excise department. If he have allot more Quantity as camp are to production records the next year quantity should be less on prorata basis.
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