Refusing to scrap the government?s decision under which 194 coal blocks were allocated to various companies, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and the CBI on a PIL seeking probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged irregularities.
The PIL, filed by various members of civil society, including former CEC N Gopalaswami, ex-Navy chief L Ramdas and former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian, has leveled allegations of unfairness and arbitrariness in the allocation of 194 blocks and sought cancellation of the licenses granted by the government.
The PIL, filed by Common Cause, an NGO, had sought quashing of the entire allocation of coal blocks to private companies made by the Centre since 1993 till February this year.
Citing CAG report, it said that the allocation between 2004-2010 caused a windfall gain of R1.86 lakh crore to private companies, making it the bigger scam than the 2G spectrum scam.
A bench headed by Justice RM Lodha, while seeking a comprehensive reply from the ministry of coal and the investigative agency within eight weeks refused to stay the government’s decision by which coal blocks were allegedly allocated to various private companies in violation of law.
The court also posted the matter for further hearing on January 24 and tagged other two similar PILs with it.
Earlier, the apex court, on a PIL by one advocate M L Sharma, had posed six questions on coal block allocations and asked the Centre to explain if the guidelines on allotting natural resources to private companies were being strictly followed. Sharma had named 25 companies, including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power, which have got the blocks in various states.
Even the top court had sought reply from the Centre, the Orissa government and others on another PIL filed by one Purna Chandra Sahu demanding a CBI probe over state owned miner OMC?s contentious deal with Delhi-based Sainik Mining & Allied Services Ltd (SMASL) for developing the Ukal-D coal block in Orissa, citing blatant violation of Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act-1973. However, OMC on September 27 scrapped the joint venture deal after it drew flak for conceding controlling stake of 74% in the joint venture to the private player.
Common Cause had alleged that the central government had allocated scarce natural resource to a few select private companies at throwaway prices in a completely arbitrary and non-transparent manner, thus causing a huge loss to the public exchequer.
Counsel Prashant Bhushan argued that the ongoing CBI investigation into the alleged coal block scam was in sufficient and only SIT can conduct an impartial probe in the case, in which names of many ministers and their kith and kin have cropped up.
?That investigation of CBI at the instance of CVC is partial and does not cover the full magnitude of the coal scam. The alleged conspiracy in blocking the policy of competitive bidding and the manner in which the screening committee functioned need to be investigated thoroughly, which involves senior ministers including the highest executive office of the country,? the petition said.
Without naming Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project, the NGO has also sought an investigation into how surplus coal from blocks allocated for captive use of the project in Madhya Pradesh was allowed to be diverted for non-captive use allowing windfall gains to Anil Ambani firm Reliance Power.
