NEW DELHI: India's government urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to scrap permits for nearly 220 coal mines after the licensing process was deemed illegal, reversing an earlier request for some to remain open.
Energy-hungry India's coal market has been in turmoil since last month when the Supreme Court declared the government-run procedure for awarding the coal blocks to private firms had been illegal.
The court Tuesday reserved its judgement after ending hearings about what to do with the illegal mines awarded over a two-decade period starting in the early 1990s.
It set no date for its ruling.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi argued that licences for all 218 of the coal blocks deemed illegal by the court should be cancelled.
Rohatgi's argument marked a change from his stance last week when he told the court 46 blocks should be allowed to stay with their current owners because the mines were already operational or close to being so.
"These allocations are illegal," Rohatgi said on Tuesday, giving no immediate reason for the change of heart.
But an affidavit presented to the court by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing government called for a "clean slate" on which to build the energy sector.
The government, in the affidavit, promised to initiate speedy "transparent" fresh auctions to deal with a looming power crisis in the country.
The government would like the process of "reallocation of the blocks to start as soon as possible", the affidavit stated.
Modi swept to power in May on promises to revive and reform the ailing economy and clean up widespread corruption.
India is suffering from critically low coal supplies which it needs to fuel power plants. Blackouts are common in the country of 1.2 billion people.
The court's ruling last month stems from allegations in 2012 by the national auditor that the government underpriced coal mines and gave away as much as $33 billion in windfall gains to companies.
Many of the mines were allotted during the previous left-leaning government's stint in power in what became known as the "coalgate scandal".
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