The Supreme Court on Friday allowed transportation of 75,050 metric tonnes of coal from Meghalaya for 15 days beginning May 17 but asked the state government to ensure that no other coal should be transported or mined.

A judgment pronounced by Justice Ashok Bhushan on various pleas to allow transportation of extracted coal, said, “We permit the transportation of coal of 75,050MT with regard to which challans have already been issued.” The challans were issued between December 4, 2018 and January 15, 2019.

The court, however, imposed some criteria for transportation of the specified coal.

It asked the state government to take “necessary precaution” that no other kind or category of coal is permitted to be transported or mined under the guise of the permission.

It said only those who have transport challans, after the order of the court dated December 4, 2018, should be permitted to transport the 75,050MT coal as noted by Justice (retd) B.P. Katakey Committee.

“We further make it clear that while permitting transportation, the state authority should maintain the details of such transportation in different registers,” it stated, adding that the registers should contain information regarding quantity of coal, details of payments, person who is transporting the coal, person who is owner of the coal and details and date of verification certificate.

“These details are necessary to be noted, since we are yet to take a decision on what further liability can be imposed on coal which is going to be transported under this order,” the court stated.

It asked the state to entrust the duty to ensure compliance of the order to responsible officers of the state government not below the rank of deputy commissioner.

It directed the state government to finalise and publicise the mechanism for ensuring verification and transportation of the permitted coal for the benefit of all concerned and to put it in place within a week from today (Friday).

The actual transportation, after due verification and issuing of a verification certificate by an officer not below the rank of deputy commissioner, will be permitted from May 17 till May 31, after which no transportation will be allowed.

In December 2018, the apex court had initially allowed transportation of coal up to March 31, 2019, on the basis of a submission made by the counsel appearing for the state government that 1,76,655 MTs of coal was available for transportation. However, On January 15, 2019, the court directed that there would not be any transportation of coal lying at the sites.

The Justice (retd) Katakey Committee, constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) last year, had sought information from the state government about the quantity of coal for which challans for transportation were issued between December 4, 2018 and January 15, 2019 and the quantity of coal already transported from the state.

The committee was informed that challans for transportation of 1,69,149MT coal had been issued, pursuant to which 94,099MT coal had been transported out of the state between these dates, leaving 75,050MT of coal still to be transported, in respect of which the challans have already been issued.