New Delhi:Â The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order in the coal block allocation case. However, it has not announced a date for when it will declare its judgement in the case.Â
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Earlier, the Centre said it favours the cancellation of coal blocks allocations which were declared as illegal by the Supreme Court. In sum and substance, cancellation of coal block allocation is a natural consequence, the Centre told the Supreme Court.
The Centre said the retention of 46 blocks which are in operation or will be operational soon should be considered. Centre has pleaded with the court not to cancel allocation without hearing companies who were allocated coal blocks.
Centre said these 46 producing coal blocks can be taken over by Coal India Limited or like the 2G case, allotees can be allowed to carry on until fresh auction.
The apex court had earlier ruled the 218 coal blocks that were allocated between 1993 and 2010 by the screening committee were illegal as they were not fair and transparent and were arbitrary.
A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha had also held that “no State Government or public sector undertakings of the State Governments are eligible for mining coal for commercial use”. The court had suggested to set up a committee headed by a retired apex court judge to examine what should be done for the re-allocation of these coal blocks.
The apex court had also said that no objective criteria was followed by the screening committee in the allocation of the coal blocks.