https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=184542 Coal distribution policy must remain fair, non-arbitrary, and consistent with constitutional and statutory controls when dealing with an essential commodity. The Supreme Court held that linked non-core consumers and traders were not similarly placed for coal e-auction purposes, so subjecting both to the same bidding-based pricing mechanism lacked rational classification and was unconstitutional to that extent. The Court also accepted that genuine linked consumers and certain smokeless fuel or hard coke units could rely on prior governmental assurances and established linkage arrangements, so policy changes could not displace them without a lawful, reasoned, and transparent framework aligned with public interest. en-us Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 13 Feb 2024 16:42:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=184542 Coal distribution policy must remain fair, non-arbitrary, and consistent with constitutional and statutory controls when dealing with an essential commodity. The Supreme Court held that linked non-core consumers and traders were not similarly placed for coal e-auction purposes, so subjecting both to the same bidding-based pricing mechanism lacked rational classification and was unconstitutional to that extent. The Court also accepted that genuine linked consumers and certain smokeless fuel or hard coke units could rely on prior governmental assurances and established linkage arrangements, so policy changes could not displace them without a lawful, reasoned, and transparent framework aligned with public interest. Case-Laws Indian Laws Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=184542