Coal news and updates

2 petitions in Supreme Court over coal Ordinance

Just a few days before the NDA government intends to introduce a Bill in Parliament seeking to replace coal block allocation ordinance, two petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014, have been filed in Supreme Court.

A special bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur, however, posted the petitions filed by CESC and Electrosteel Casting for hearing on December 16.

CESC wants SC to strike down and declare as illegal a part of the ordinance that includes the Sarshatali Coal Block allotted to it (in Entry 191 of Schedule I and Entry 35 of Schedule II) on ground that its fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 and Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution are seriously infringed.

Alternately, CESE wants the government to grant a coal linkage to it in lieu of the cancellation of the Sarshatali coal mine without any disruption of electricity supplied to its 28 lakh consumers in and around Kolkata over last 115 years since 1899.

Even Electrosteel Casting wants Parbatpur coal block in Jharkhand to be excluded from the ordinance. The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014, was brought in October after Supreme Court cancelled 204 of 218 coal blocks alloted to companies since 1993 terming the method of allotting as “fatally flawed”.

Apart from facilitating auctioning of the cancelled coal blocks, the ordinance allow private players to mine coal and sell it in the open market.

Source: The Financial Express