new delhi in an order that is expected to have serious implications on the relationship between the judiciary and executive the supreme court on thursday charged secretary coal ministry h c gupta cmd coal india partha s bhattacharyya and 9 other top officials of bccl and ccl with contempt of court and has asked all of them except gupta to appear in person for the next hearingthe court has also issued a show cause notice to the contemnors returnable in two weeks asking why they should not be punished for contempt it is not every day that such a large number of officers of such seniority are required to make themselves available in the courtroom the officers include cmd bharat coking coal ltd bccl a k paul cmd central coalfield ltd ccl r p ritolia cmd northern coalfields ltd ncl v k singh along with the director finance and general manager of both firmsthe matter pertains to the attempt by the coal ministry to sell coal through eauctions linked noncore sector coal consumers challenged this move with the court eventually ruling in their favour to set aside eauctions in an order of 1122006 within six weeks of this coal companies were required to honor an interim order of 12122005 which asked them to refund to these petitioners in addition to the notified price 333 of the enhanced price along with 12 interest but cil and its subsidiaries failed to pay up way past the deadline in response aggrieved linked noncore sector coal consumers initiated contempt proceedings in february 2007 they brought to the notice of the court that bccl in a blatant vindictive manner arbitrarily without show cause notice suspended supplies to the linked consumers as an outburst of the contempt action initiated by themcoal companies gave an undertaking in court to refund the money there is no question of them not honoring it especially since coal consumers also gave a similar undertaking to pay 666 of the enhanced price should they lose the case says manish saran advocate for the coal consumers