Coal scam: SC to decide fate of 218 coal blocks today

The Supreme Court will today decide the fate of the 218 coal blocks, which were allocated to companies illegally by the Centre.

The Supreme Court had earlier reserved its order on the cancellation of coal block allocations that were earlier declared illegal, jeopardising projects built around the blocks and threatening to exacerbate a shortage of fuel.

A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha last month had held that all coal blocks allocations since 1993 by various regimes at the Centre have been made illegally and arbitrarily.

However, it had stopped short of cancelling them saying, what the consequences will be is the issue which remains to be tackled.

In total, there are 218 blocks, of which 80 have already been cancelled. Out of the remaining 138, these 46 blocks can be further exempted. Of these, 12 are ultra power projects that have already been exempted by the apex court.