The Supreme Court on Monday issued contempt notice to various companies, allegedly for failing to pay the penalty imposed by it in lieu of the coal already mined from the cancelled blocks, as sought by the Centre.
A special bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur, while issuing notice to the alleged contemnors, asked them to be present before it on the next date of hearing. However, it said that if they paid the penalty amount in the meantime, then they “need not appear in person.”
If these companies are asked to pay, the Centre can end up collecting over Rs 3,000 crore as penalty.
The summoning order was passed after the coal ministry asked the apex court to take action against the contemnors for willful disobedience of last year’s judgment and a direction to them to pay the additional levy as directed by it.
The contemnors, having failed to comply with the orders of the court, were stated to be guilty of contempt.
Alleged contemnors include Durgadas Goswami, chairman and MD, WBPDCL, AWK Langstieh, chairman, Damodar Valley Corporation, Bikash Mukherjee, director, Bengal Emta Coal Mines, Punjab Emta Coal Mines and Karnataka Emta Coal Mines, SR Mishra, director, BLA Industries, K Kholie, MD, Arunachal Pradesh Mineral Development & Trading Corporation, and Romit Mutsuddi, MD, West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi argued that the companies are bound to pay as per the apex court’s direction in September last year. He urged the bench “to exercise its contempt jurisdiction because the inaction of the contemnor has adversely affected the administration of justice and had been done with an intention which tends to impede its course of justice and tends to shake public confidence in the judicial institution.”
Mining leases were executed by joint venture companies formed between state governments and private miners. EMTA was engaged in mining from the coal blocks allotted to West Bengal, Punjab and Karnataka with a majority stake of 74% in the respective joint ventures, while the state governments held 26% stake in their respective ventures.