The three Coal Ministry officials, including former Secretary, were convicted.
Why were they convicted?
The secretary was the chairperson of the screening committee that recommended allocations.
It functioned for years without regard for guidelines, norms or transparency.
The three officials have been found guilty of abusing their positions to procure a coal block for Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Limited.
Special CBI Court has now ruled that Coal Ministry officials deliberately allowed an incomplete application from an ineligible company to be taken up for consideration.
The accused actually let all applications pass without any checking and arbitrarily exercised their discretion in favour of those companies.
What is the significance?
It is the logical consequence of the 2014 Supreme Court order declaring all coal block allocations made since 1993 illegal and arbitrary.
Two previous trials had ended in convictions, but those held guilty were officials of private companies who had deceived the authorities into allotting them blocks.
This judgment marks the first case in which individual criminal liability has been fixed on public servants in the coal block scam.
The verdict may become a benchmark for other ongoing prosecutions on similar lines.
The case also raises questions about the role and responsibility of a Secretary to the government, who is not only the administrative head of a department but also an adviser to the Minister on matters of policy.
