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In reply to center, Supreme Court has rejected the plea for transferring all the cases pending against coal ordinance to apex court saying "a litigant has the right to ask for quashing of the provision in the ordinance."

There are five petitions pending against the govt on coal auction in the region of Calcutta and Madhya Pradesh high courts.

The bench headed by  Chief Justice of India HL Dattu has rejected the petition submitted by  Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi saying if court gives different orders then it would be difficult for the govt to go on with the coal auction process to meet the deadline of March 31, 2015.

He also argued that govt also has to hold apex court decisions, referring to the BLA power in Madhya Pradesh High Court that the company is the sister concerned of the prior allottee BLA Industries and not eligible to take part in the tender process. In which the BLA has failed to pay the additional levy of Rs 295 per metric tons in terms of the court's earlier decision after cancellation of the block.

The court also rejected the centers appeal against the Madhya Pradesh High Court order, which allowed participating in the auction process of Gotitioria East and Gotitoria West Coal Mines. It also ordered that the centre should not take any decisions before the next hearing on February 12.

-Arun Kumar