PIL on coal import anomaly: HC directs State to give info

The court asked the government to explain the CAG report which had castigated the State for a similar tender, urgently. The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy asked the PIL petitioner to establish his charge that the import of 20 lakh tonnes of steam coal at the cost of Rs 1,330 crore involved substantial loss to the exchequer and kickbacks.

Pointing out that there was further material, as per the PIL, to demonstrate how a greater price was paid for previous supplies, the bench said, “It is easy to hint at improprieties or corrupt practices indulged in by some persons and raise an atmosphere of suspicion and quite another to produce hard facts and unimpeachable evidence to establish the same.”

The bench said if similar ‘short notices’ had been resorted to in the previous years, the lockdown excuse that was recorded in the orders of the court on March 8 will stand considerably diluted. “There is a presumption that when an act is done by any official or a state that such act has been done in accordance with the law. Further, the courts are required to give a degree of elbow room to a PSU to function freely,” the bench said.

Citing an expression in the law of contracts, ‘play in the joints,’ to the bench said, “At the same time a government organisation cannot take recourse to ‘play in the joints’ excuse to run riot or cause loss to the public exchequer for a group of persons to personally benefit therefrom.”

The court directed the petitioner to file additional documents and a supplementary affidavit. He should forward it to the Advocate General by March 13 noon. The bench posted the plea to March 17 for further hearing when Tangedco will submit its counter-affidavit.