The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to put a ceiling on the quantity of coal the companies could mine till March 31, 2015. These companies were by a court order in September directed to wind up mining operations in six months after their coal block allocations were cancelled owing to illegalities in allotments. A bench led by Chief Justice HL Dattu refused to issue any restraint order, supplemental to the original order, saying the companies were free to excavate in accordance with their capacity and sell it in market till the deadline is reached. “If they want to excavate coal, nobody can stop them. They have been given six months time. The court did not direct them that they cannot excavate or they cannot sell. Why should this court say anything now?” said the court. It added: “ They (miners) have the licence so they can certainly operate. This court has already said its order will become operational only after six months.” The court’s observation came as advocate ML Sharma, one of the petitioners in the coal block allocation case, submitted that the companies are extracting three to four times more coal per day in their haste to wind up the operations within six months. He submitted that the companies should be restrained from doing so. On September 24, the apex court had quashed the allocation of 214 out of 218 coal blocks allocated since 1993, terming it as “fatally flawed” and had allowed the Centre to take over operation of 42 such blocks which are functional. It asked Coal India Limited (CIL)to fill the void and take over the operation of the 42 functional blocks, saying that the cancellation of these blocks will take effect only after six months from March 31, 2015. The apex court had given the time after it was submitted by the Attorney General that the Centre and CIL need some time to adjust to the changed situation and move forward.
