Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said the Supreme Court's observations have also gives the opportunity to evaluate the most transparent and competent way to allocate a high value natural resources.
"The Supreme Court's observations give us the opportunity to evaluate what can be the most transparent and competent way to allocate a high value natural resource such as coal for mining purposes and ensure its efficient use," said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE.
"The court's intervention provides an excellent opportunity and window to initiate reforms in the entire mining sector. The issue of appropriate allocation and extraction of mineral resources and the unfair distribution of costs and benefits realised from such resource extraction is a long standing controversy," he said.
Stating that India's existing regulatory mechanisms and institutions were not fit to deliver results in the 21st century, CSE also put forth some recommendations which include moving away from allocation of captive mines and going for open auction.
The other recommendations include beginning of auctioning only after all environmental and social issues were sorted out, realising the clearances that have already been granted, capturing the windfall profits for society, involving people in decision-making and others.
Stating that between April 2007 and August 2014, more than 260 coal mining projects with a cumulative production capacity of about 823 million tonnes (MT) per year were given environmental clearance, CSE said that if clearances given during this time are fully realised, this combined with India's current production capacity of 566 MT is more than sufficient to meet the country's projected demand of 980.5 MT in 2017.