India’s Supreme Court has cancelled 214 of the 218 coal mining licences awarded since 1993, the BBC and Reuters report.
The court ruled that companies will have to return most of the coal blocks illegally allocated by the government, in a move that could have an adverse effect on an already severe shortage of coal in the short-term.
In August, the Supreme Court ruled that the licences were illegal since they were allocated in an “arbitrary” manner.
According to the BBC, the four remaining units are all owned by the government.
The Government of India has been criticised for losing billions of dollars from the exchequer by selling coalfields too cheaply. A draft report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) has accused the Government of distributing 155 coalfields to private and state-owned miners rather than auctioning them off, undervaluing the coal resources by an estimated Rs 10.7 trillion (US$ 210 billion).