The Supreme Court today quashed allocation of 214 of 218 coal blocks alloted between 1993 and 2010. Coal blocks allocated to SAIL and NTPC and two for Ultra Mega Power Projects are saved from being quashed.

The apex court pronounced its verdict this afternoon on blocks in which government claimed that 2 lakh crore rupee investments have been made. The court granted six months breathing time to companies whose blocks were cancelled to wind up business.

It has directed that the companies will have to pay the loss as compensation for the non-operation of the mines. The court has also accepted CAG's estimate that there was loss of 295 rupees per mega tonne due to the non-operation of the mines. The apex court said, its observations and findings on the issue will have no bearing on the CBI probe into Coalgate.
A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha on August the 25th had held that all coal blocks allocations since 1993 by various regimes at the Centre have been made illegally and arbitrarily.