The Supreme Court on Wednesday found grave irregularities in the functioning of the Screening Committee that benefitted 11 private players with coal blocks in violation of established procedures. Significantly, the allocations in question relate to the period when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also the Coal Minister.
The Special Bench of the apex court, which is examining irregularities in the allotment of coal blocks between 1993 and 2008, was surprised to note that no uniform criteria were applied by the Committee to select or reject applicants.
Private companies who were to be allotted coal blocks had to be shortlisted by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) before the Ministry of Power recommended their case for allocation to the Screening Committee. This was the uniform procedure followed in all allocations, Attorney-General GE Vahanvati told the court.
During the 33rd to the 36th meetings of the Screening Committee, out of over 100 odd applicants, 44 were shortlisted and only 28 were recommended to the CEA by the Power Ministry. Of these, coal blocks were allotted to only 20 entities, while eight got rejected. The bench of Justices RM lodha, Madan lokur and Kurian Joseph was at a loss to understand on what grounds the eight companies were rejected. But what surprised the court most was the parallel decision of the Screening Committee to allot coal blocks to 11 private companies out of nowhere.
Seeking explanation from the Centre on this move, the Bench was quick to spot the irregularity particularly in the light of recent allegations that the Screening Committee entertained “slips” sent from the Ministry to allot coal blocks. “Eleven more companies were recommended by Screening Committee. They were not recommended by CEA or Ministry of Power. This is a big question mark from where and how they were brought in.”
The court even expressed concern on the rejection of eight companies, who stood the test of dual scrutiny by CEA and Ministry of Power. “We want to see that absolutely uniform rules were applied. We are not on who got coal blocks or not, but we have to see the decision-making process. The court must be apprised of how decision was made.”
Vahanvati sought time till Thursday to get back with the details. Meanwhile, he informed the court that the Centre had decided to de-allocate the coal blocks which are yet to obtain mining leases after giving them an opportunity to secure pending clearances and lease within three to six weeks.
The Bench directed the Centre to go slow in cases where despite having obtained forest, environmental clearances and all other approvals, State Governments was sitting on their applications for mining lease. Under this category there were five coal blocks, informed the Centre. Fresh notices will be issued to the entire lot of 61 allottees following which a decision will be taken by Government after six weeks.