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Manohar Lal Sharma v. The Principal Secretary & Others

Writ Petition (Criminal) · Neutral citation not assigned (Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 120 of 2012, order of 25 August 2014)Decided 25 Aug 2014
Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 120 of 2012
Chief Justice R.M. Lodha · Justice Madan B. Lokur · Justice Kurian Joseph

Background

Public-interest petitions challenged the Central Government's allocation of coal blocks between 1993 and 2010. They alleged that valuable public resources had been distributed through an opaque process and to recipients who were not eligible under the governing mining laws.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that allocations through all 36 Screening Committee meetings from July 1993 and the government-dispensation route were arbitrary and illegal. The committee had not transparently compared applicants using consistent criteria, while the governing statutory scheme prohibited the challenged commercial-mining allocations to State public-sector undertakings and arrangements with ineligible firms. The Court reserved the consequences of that illegality for a further hearing. Ultra Mega Power Project allocations made through lowest-tariff competitive bidding were outside the challenge, but their coal could not be diverted for commercial exploitation.

Lesson Learnt

Coal is a public resource, so selecting its recipients must follow the law and fair, transparent procedures. Declaring allocations unlawful can precede a separate decision on cancellation or other consequences; this August judgment did not itself decide those remedies.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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