Fixing the coal mess
The Supreme Court's sweeping judgement holding all coal field allocations since 1993 illegal opens a number of questions
In a sweeping judgement, the Supreme Court has held that all coal field allocations since 1993 are arbitrary and illegal. The judgment opens a number of questions, of which two are uppermost in many minds: how should coal be allocated? And, what will happen to the existing allocations?
The court answered the latter question by saying, “...what should be the consequences, is the issue which remains to be tackled. We are of the view that, to this limited extent, the matter requires further hearing."
The ruling gives the government the option to start allocations afresh. It should proceed carefully and ensure that private interests of those allocated coal mines and public interest do not diverge wildly as they did under previous regimes.
Absolute convergence is impossible without the state taking over but even efficiency requires some convergence in this matter. The mechanism for that should be designed carefully.
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