SC pulls up Centre, says justify coal blocks allocation - Hindustan Times

Pulling up the Centre for not cooperating with the CBI in the coal blocks allocation scam, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed it to submit all documents relating to the decisions taken by a screening committee that decided the controversial allocations. A three-judge bench headed by justice RM Lodha asked attorney general GE Vahanvati to file a detailed affidavit justifying the allocation of 164 coal blocks. The direction came after Vahanvati told the court that in all there were 204 coal block allocations, including the 72 allocated through government dispensation route. The government has already de-allocated 40 of the coal blocks, he told the bench. Reading out from the latest status report submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the bench expressed displeasure over the coal ministry not cooperating with the agency, which complained it was not getting relevant documents from the ministry. "If the documents are available, these should be made available to the CBI," the bench said, adding, "It should also reflect in your counter affidavit." The court, which is hearing two petitions challenging the coal block allocations on the ground of alleged arbitrariness in the decision-making process, gave four weeks to the Centre to file a detailed affidavit justifying the 164 coal block allocations. The bench also asked the CBI to file by July 16 its response to the Centre's affidavit on the steps proposed to give autonomy to the agency. The court had on May 8 described the CBI as a "caged parrot with many masters". The matter will be taken up on July 17. The government landed itself in trouble with the Supreme Court over the law ministry and officials of the Prime Minister's Office vetting a CBI status report on coal block allocations.  According to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), allocating coal blocks without auctions has caused a presumptive loss of up to Rs. 1.86-lakh crore. Earlier, additional solicitor general Siddharth Luthra, representing the CBI, recused  himself. He is the second CBI counsel to recuse (remove oneself), the first being senior counsel UU Lalit who represented the agency on the last date. Pending a proper legislation on the CBI's autonomy, the petitioner's counsel, Prashant Bhushan, proposed that there should not be any need to obtain sanction from the government to prosecute a person in any court-monitored or court-directed probe. The AG said the Centre would respond to it by the next date. via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGyB9q39hwdUyqbtxpcPixk600rGQ&url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/newdelhi/SC-pulls-up-Centre-says-justify-coal-blocks-allocation/Article1-1090386.aspx

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