Govt faces tough questions from SC on allocation

The Centre on Tuesday faced tough questions from the Supreme Court, which asked the government whether all the methods adopted for coal block allocation since 1992 had due sanction of law and how the screening committee was authorised to decide on allocation.

Attorney general GE Vahanvati cited the 1991 economic crisis in India to justify the allocation of coal mining blocks to private parties and quoted from a speech by the then finance minister Manmohan Singh, the current prime minister, on the country’s economic turmoil. “In 1991, the country had only Rs 2,500 crore in foreign exchange to run the country for a fortnight. We needed Rs1,25,000 crore for generating power,” Vahanvati submitted.

The AG said that every participative procedure involving state governments was followed at each stage of policy formation and the proposal for bidding procedure was made by the prime minister himself.

The bench headed by Justice R M Lodha also posed serious queries with regard to setting up of Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited.