As a citizen and also as one having spent decades in the government, I congratulate the prime minister (PM) for having openly come out and said that he, as the coal minister and as PM, had approved the allocation of 15 per cent equity in coal blocks to Kumar Mangalam Birla for appropriate reasons. I do not agree with the view that the matter should have gone back to the screening committee. The PM's bold and correct stand is a boost for the bureaucracy. The PM (and coal minister at the same time then) has every right to go against the committee's recommendation. He is both the competent and final authority. He can set aside the recommendation of any executive authority below him if there is a reason to do so. The committee is only a recommending authority that is a part of the procedure for the allotment of coal mines. The Supreme Court has time and again held that procedures are to be interpreted liberally and not strictly.
Even the screening committee in the finance ministry for detention of smugglers only makes recommendations to the ministry, which can overrule it for other good relations such as foreign policy.
So, when the PM went by the overall consideration and not only the recommendation of the committee, no wrong was done since no malafide was involved. Not taking a decision but merely fiddling with the file to abide by procedure has led to the current policy paralysis. The PM's assertion will infuse some boldness in the bureaucracy.
Sukumar Mukhopadhyay New Delhi
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