SC seeks Centre's response to Jharkhand plea against coal mine auction

NEW DELHI: Cloud of uncertainty in judicial adjudication enveloped the Centre's decision to auction coal mines for commercial exploitation as the Supreme Court on Tuesday sought Union government's response to Jharkhand's suit questioning the auction on many grounds.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices R S Reddy and A S Bopanna asked the Centre to file its response within four weeks to Jharkhand government's suit, which gave the state's grievance against the auction the cloak of a centre-state dispute. Jharkhand has asserted its ownership right over the coal mines while warning that indiscriminate commercial exploitation of mines on forest land will be an environmental hazard and destroy tribals' customs and heritage.

The suit under Article 131 of the Constitution challenging the decision to put on auction 41 coal mines, nine of which are in Jharkhand, was to ensure that the SC becomes the sole arbiter of the issues raised by it, which ranged from environment, tribal welfare, non-consultation with states and the depressed economic scenario due to Covid that dimmed the prospect of fetching fair price for the valuable mineral resource.