The centre is deeply embarrassed by the rising prices of onions in market to touch 80 rupees a kg., throwing tears in the eyes of poor and middle class Indians, similarly another pull up by the SC bench of Justices R.M. Lodha, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph by opening one after another covers like in an onion in the coal allocation scam case, that is putting more tears in the eyes of Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati.
a) The bench concluded that Union government has not followed the procedure contemplated in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and the rules framed there under in the allocation of coal blocks, and said,“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.”
b) Justice Lodha told the AG, “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?”
c) Justice Lodha posed a series of questions to the AG ,“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.”
d) Justice Lodha, on the point of AG that the decision was taken by the Prime Minister himself,said, “We are concerned with the decision-making process, whether it is ultra vires or not.” He 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.
e) The judge wanted to know why competitive bidding was not followed in the allocation of blocks to private power plants; what were the norms fixed by the Central or State governments for such allocation and minutes of the meetings for coal allocations.
The Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph was not satisfied with the explanations of Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati and asked him to respond by Wednesday on all the above points along with the supporting past reports.