The Supreme Court of India on Thursday gave the government much needed respite by ruling that is not mandatory that all allocations of natural resources be made through the auction route.

The BJP-led Opposition has long been launching verbal attacks on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government over its controversial decision of allocating coal blocks without auctioning them. National auditor CAG said in its report that arbitrary allocation of coal blocks robbed the taxpayers of around 1.86 lakh crore.

But, a five-judge apex court bench led by chief justice SH Kapadia yesterday ruled that the auction route could not be the only method of allocating natural resources.

The bench said in its ruling, "Auction could be a better option where the aim is maximization of revenue, but then every method other than auction of natural resources cannot be shut down."

While answering to a presidential reference, the bench underlined that the hallmark for any policy ruling was common good and if that objective was met, then any means adopted by the government was in harmony with the Constitution.

The ruling provided a strong hint the government could make use of other options such as first-come first-served, screening committees or lottery for the allotting resources as long as the process is transparent.

Hemant Joshi, a partner with Deloitte Haskins & Sells, said the ruling on auction of natural resources would decrease uncertainty in sectors like mining, power and infrastructure.

After the positive ruling, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said that te ruling showed that what the government did was right.