Supreme Court cancels allocation of 214 coal blocks

mangaloretoday.com/ IndianExpress

New Delhi, sept 24: The Supreme Court on Wednesday cancelled allocations of 214 out of 218 coal blocks, which were declared to be illegally allocated.

The court turned down the government’s suggestion to consider 46 blocks, which are either in production or are ready to be made operational.

 

A bench led by Chief Justice R M Lodha said that but for four blocks allocated for Ultra Mega Power Projects ( UMPPs ) and to state utilities, all others were liable to be cancelled. Two of these blocks in Madhya Pradesh and two others in Jharkhand.

The bench also nixed a plea by the private companies to set up a committee to examine the losses that may accrue to them consequent to cancellation. It held that once these allotments were declared to be illegally allocated, such plea did not have to be entertained.

The court asked Coal India Ltd to take over such blocks within 6 months and auction them.

As per the order, 36 operational coal blocks have been cancelled and they are ordered to stop production after March 1, 2015.

The court also directed for a penalty of Rs 295 per tonne imposed on all cancelled coal block holders.

The SC added that CBI probe into merit of all allotments must continue.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/supreme-court-cancels-allocation-of-214-coal-blocks-spares-4-orders-re-auction/#sthash.AlZaAj5F.dpuf