Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Reacting to the Supreme Court's ruling that all coal blocks allocated between 1993-2010 were illegal, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said he respects the apex court's decision and that the nation should accept the final verdict.
'I am happy that the honourable Supreme Court announced its judgement on the coal block allocations scam. I respect it,' the minister said.
Calling on the nation to accept the final verdict of the apex court, Goyal said he was looking forward to the finality of the coal block allocations judgement on September 1. He also said the government was ready to act quickly once the final decisions were taken by the court in the case.
Now that the Supreme Court has passed judgement on the scam, the minister said the economy could now move forward rather than being cast in the shadow of uncertainty.
The minister also added that the apex court verdict may boost the investment climate in the country by bringing in transparency in the allocation of coal blocks. While stating that the final verdict of the Supreme Court on the issue is awaited, he clarified that there will be no de-allocation of coal blocks as of now.
The apex court of the country on Monday passed its judgement in the coal block allocation scam and termed it as illegal as the process followed by the screening committee between 1990-2010 were not fair nor transparent and suffered from vice of arbitrariness.
A bench comprising of Chief Justice R M Lodha criticised the terms of allocation of the coal blocks stating they were done under the screening committee rule and the government dispensation suffers from illegality.
The bench also said no objective criteria was followed and guidelines were breached in the coal block allocation, adding that all allocations were done in illegal manner and that it suffers from vice of arbitrariness.
The bench stopped short of deallocating the coal blocks saying further hearing was required to determine whether there was a need for cancelling 218 coal block allocations.
The bench has fixed September 1 to decide the consequences of the illegality of the coal blocks.
