Coal scam: SC should look into each block allotment case by case, says Memon

Ahead of the hearing on the coal scam in the Supreme Court, senior advocate Majid Memon on Monday said the apex court will have to undertake an exercise of finding out each block allotment case by case.

"SC has very cautiously ensured that abrupt cancellation of all the allotted blocks do not cause any harm, damage or loss to innocent people who may not have been involved in a crime," Memon said.

"In order to examine which are the cases where the cancellation would entail or result in miscarriage of justice, SC will have to undertake an exercise of finding out each block allotment case by case," he added.

The Supreme Court had earlier declared that all allocations made by the Screening Commission and the government between 1992 and 2009 as illegal and arbitrary. The Supreme Court had deemed more than 200 allocations to be illegal.

The Supreme Court had scheduled a hearing on the first of September to decide on those allocations where the mining work has already begun.

It may be mentioned that a CAG report on coal block allocation had stated that nearly 150 coalfields were allotted to private and state-run firms without transparency and objectivity between 2005 and 2009.

The coal blocks were allotted in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh to private companies and parties.

An Apex court bench headed by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha had said in January this year that huge investments by companies could not be a ground for not cancelling the license.

After the Centre de-allocated 40 coal blocks, the court had further suggested de-allocation of 29 blocks allotted to private companies as well.