Supreme Court Terms All Coal Block Allocations Since 1992 Illegal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday held that the coal blocks allocated from 1992 onwards were illegal and devoid of any procedure.

The SC said the allocations were done in arbitrary, non-transparent manner and were against public interest.

The apex court allowed the coal block allocations to ultra mega power projects to continue but barred them from using the coal for any purpose, read commercial exploitation, other than captive consumption.

The apex court slammed the allocation of coal blocks, saying allocations were made in a casual manner without doing any comparative assessment of applicants.

The SC said all allocation made in 36 meetings of screening committee since 1992 are illegal and arbitrary.




The SC said now it will hear from parties what should be done for future in the cases of cancelled coal blocks.

The SC judgment prima facie puts huge burden on coal scam case accused as they would now find it difficult to say no wrong was committed in allocation of coal block.