Supreme Court dismisses plea of Tata Steel and others seeking re-look of Coal Block judgment

“We are not going into it. Whether your case was considered by the screening committee or not is not an issue. We have already held that the entire process was flawed and illegal,” said the Bench consisting of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri. The Bench was hearing pleas for impleadment and quashing of an earlier judgment of the Supreme Court, wherein the Court had cancelled 214 out of 218 coal blocks allocations, that were presented before them.

 The impleadment applications were filed by many parties, including Tata Steel. The Court also said, “Since the writ petitions have already been disposed of, these impleadment applications cannot be allowed. We had held that all the allocations were illegal and hence, consequences will follow.”

Reportedly, one of the lawyers appearing for the applicants submitted that both the judgment of the Apex Court and the CAG report dealt with over-ground mining and had nothing on underground mining sites. He said, “Our’s is an underground mining site. The CAG report did not deal with it and even the court, in its judgement, did not deal with it as no details with regard to such mining was produced.”

However, the Court refused to entertain the applications but agreed to hear the pleas challenging the Coal Block Allocation Ordinance.

Senior Lawyer Prashant Bhushan also appeared in the matter and submitted to the Court that Mr. Ranjit Sinha, the previous Director of CBI had met persons, who were being investigated for their roles in the coal scam. Reportedly, the Court said, “Now CBI Director (Ranjit Sinha) is gone. Where is the question of his interfering?” It also went on to say, “But the second prayer for constitution of a SIT is still there. Now he has retired, but he did try to scuttle the probe.”

 You may read more of our coverage on coal block allocation case here.