The Centre on Tuesday failed to satisfy the Supreme Court in the coalgate as the judges insisted on going by the minutes of the Screening Committee to grasp lapses in the allocation policy under challenge in two separate PIls.
The SC Bench asked Attorney General GE Vahanvati to explain whether various methods adopted for coal block allocation since 1992 had sanction of law and under what law the screening committee was authorised to decide on allocation.
On learning that the coal block allocations between 1993 and 2003 were made by Central Mine Planning and Design Institute limited (CMPDIl), the court wished to know from Vahanvati how the job of identifying coal blocks was shifted to Screening Committee. AG tried to explain that under CMPDIl, 21 coal blocks were allocated from 1993 to 2003 and 27 between 2003 and 2005. Of the 21 blocks, 17 became operation but out of the lot of 27, only four went into operation. This evoked concern of the Bench on the fate pertaining to the remaining coal blocks.