Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan explains to CNBC-TV18 that he will initiate legal action against the allocation of coal blocks without an auction. Bhushan highlights that the government cannot overlook maximization when allocating natural resources for commercial exploitation.
Below is an edited transcript of the Mr Prashant Bhushan’s opinion on CNBC-TV18.
Q - You were one of the original petitioners in the 2G case. However you challenged the maintainability of the Presidential Reference which the Supreme Court has opposed. What are your reactions?
A - In our view, since the government was essentially seeking a review or reconsideration of the 2G judgments, we had submitted that the Presidential Reference was not maintainable because a judgment cannot be reviewed through a Presidential Reference.
However, the Supreme Court held that its 2G judgment did not lay down that an auction was necessary for all natural resources in all circumstances. The Court then proceeded to answer the question on the Presidential Reference whether all natural resources under all circumstances have to be auctioned.
In fact we said that when the 2G judgment talks about the requirement of auctioning natural resources, it specifies natural resources like spectrum. But what distinguished spectrum was that it was a valuable natural resource that was offered for commercial exploitation by private companies.
So, we had argued that this judgment must be read and understood to mean that all natural resources offered to private companies for commercial exploitation had be auctioned.
Q - Will you move court against the de-allocation of coal blocks by the ministry whicn adds that more licenses will have to be cancelled?
A - All licences of coal blocks which have been allocated without auction and have been given to private companies for commercial purposes would be null and void and violate of Article 14, that's what this judgment holds. In fact, this judgment just reiterates what was held.
Q - The IMG set up to look into the de-allocation has not recommended cancellation of licences for all blocks. So if the government does not do that, will you file a petition asking for the licences to be cancelled?
A - We had decided to file a petition seeking cancellation of all these coal-block allocations on the same grounds on which the 2G licenses were cancelled. The principle that the government cannot give away such valuable natural resources for private companies for commercial exploitation without auction or without maximising the revenue has been upheld in the judgment by both Justice DK Jain and elaborated by Justice Kher.
Source - www.moneycontrol.com
(www.coalguru.com)
