BackHC gives CIL green light for fresh e-auction
The Delhi high court on Friday allowed Coal India Ltd to call a fresh electronic auction to sell the coal mined from the Gare Palma fields in Chhattisgarh
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New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday allowed Coal India Ltd to call a fresh electronic auction to sell the coal mined from the Gare Palma fields in Chhattisgarh.
A bench comprising of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said Jindal Power Ltd will be free to participate in the fresh auction for the disposal of coal that has been mined from Gare Palme IV/2 and IV/3 mines.
“We wish to dispose off the coal as early as possible since we do have adequate storage facilities at the moment. We are seeking an auction again as we have been able to obtain the requisite environmental clearances and consent to operate the mine that we did not have before." Coal India’s lawyer Sandeep Sethi said in court.
Jindal Power, a subsidiary of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, had emerged as successful bidder for Gare IV/2, Gare Palma IV/3 and Tara coal fields in which it had secured 49,000 metric tonnes of coal to be mined from the two mines.
The allocation was cancelled on 20 March and the mines were placed with Coal India, which was appointed as its custodian on 27 March.
JSPL challenged the cancellation in the high court and secured a stay. The order served as an abeyance over the coal blocks till the time the state-run miner obtained the requisite environmental clearances and consent to start operation of the mines.
JSPL filed an appeal in the high court seeking a remedy for disposal of coal from the mines of Gare Palms IV/2 and IV/3. It had put three options before the court for this purpose; selling the coal by way of a fresh e auction, selling it to those companies with which the public sector unit has a fuel supply or sale to National Thermal Power.
The case will be heard next on 11 August, when the main issue of cancelling the block will be argued.
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