“You have put the
cart before the horse. You [the Centre] have no power to grant lease for
coal block, which exercise can be done only by the State. You can only
grant approval. You have not followed the procedure under the Rules.”
The AG replied that while coal allocation was done by the Centre, leases
were granted by the States
Justice Lodha told the
Attorney General -
“You must show how the Screening Committee was given power to
identify the coal blocks. The Cabinet note [of April 1992] says
identification of blocks will be done by CMPDIL [Central Mine Planning
and Design Institute Limited]. Why this departure to Screening
Committee? Why has the Screening Committee become an extra player?”
Attorney General said the CMPDIL chairman was one of the members of the Screening
Committee and that he would justify each and every allocation to private
companies
Justice Lodha posed a series of questions to the AG and asked him to respond by Wed Sep 17,2013
“We want to have all booklets identifying the coal blocks for allocation
to private parties and power plants over a period of time; how the
applications were received from the private power plant operators by the
Central government, either directly or through the State government
concerned; the brief given to the Screening Committee for selection,
whether any guidelines were framed or the Screening Committee was asked
to frame its own guidelines and how the applications for allocation of
blocks were considered.”
When the Attorney General said the decision was taken by the Prime Minister himself
Justice Lodha told the Attorney General -
“We are concerned with the decision-making
process, whether it is ultra vires or not.”
Justice Lodha also wanted to know how
many private captive power plants were allocated coal blocks between
1993 and 2003, 2003 and 2004, 2004 and 2005, and 2005 and 2009; when
they became operational; and how many did not begin production at all;
and whether these blocks were re-allocated.
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