SC issues notice to centre over coal block allocation
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a government’s plea not to hear a PIL on alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks and sought an explanation whether guidelines were flouted in allotments.
This is not distribution of state properties in a small way. It is mines of largesse, not even tonnes of largesse. By the way, is it a mere coincidence that so many politicians, their relatives or supporters were benefited in the 194 coal block allotments,” a bench of Justices R M Lodha and A R Dave asked solicitor general R F Nariman.
The remark from the bench, which can potentially add sting to the opposition’s offensive over Coalgate and give jitters to the beneficiaries of controversial allocation of coal blocks, came on a PIL filed by advocate M L Sharma urging the court to cancel the 194 allocations on the ground that the allotment process was arbitrary, illegal, unconstitutional and against public interest.
Further, the bench questioned as why the names of politicians and their relatives have cropped up among the alleged illegal allotees of coal blocks in which the policy of “competitive bidding” formulated by the government in 2004 was not followed.
The bench rejected Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman’s contention that the petition based on the CAG report was “premature” as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi was slated to examine it from September 20 about the correctness of allocation.
