Caveat filed in Supreme Court against petition on Coal block allocation

NEW DELHI: The Coal Ministry has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court against a petition challenging coal block allocations.

"The coal ministry has filed a caveat against a petition challenging allocation of coal mines," a government official said.

"We have asked the court that before passing any order hear us (government)," the official said.

After the Comptroller and Auditor General(CAG) report had observed that financial benefits of an estimated Rs 1.86 lakh crore could have accrued to private firms, two petitions have been filed in the apex court against the coal block allocations.

Members of civil society including former CEC N Gopalaswami, ex-Navy chief L Ramdas and former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian had on October 4 approached the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored SIT probe into the coal block allocation.

They filed a joint PIL along with other retired bureaucrats and NGO 'Common Cause' pleading the apex court to quash the entire allocation of coal blocks to private companies made by the Centre since 1993. .

The petitioners alleged that allotment of coal blocks was non-transparent and was done in an unfair manner in violation of rules and procedures.

Earlier, on a PIL filed by advocate M L Sharma on the allocation controversy, the apex court had directed the Centre to explain if the guidelines were strictly followed in allotting the natural resource to private companies.