Delhi High Court today kept "in abeyance" a letter issued by CIl cancelling the e-auction in which Jindal Power ltd (JPl) had won 49,000 metric tonnes of coal to be mined from two Chhattisgarh mines.
The court also issued notice to Coal India ltd (CIl) and the Centre on JPl's plea challenging the May 16 letter by which the company claimed the e-auction was cancelled. "Meanwhile, letter dated May 16, 2015, be kept in abeyance," the court said. The court passed the order after CIl submitted that it was yet to get consent to operate the mines - Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 - and therefore, the mining had not commenced.
It also submitted that as of now it has not entered into any arrangement with National Thermal Power Corporation ltd (NTPC) to supply coal for the PSU's Patna unit. CIl also said that NTPC had only floated a tender for transportation of coal to its unit as and when it gets the fuel from the two mines. The court had yesterday termed as "absurd" CIl's reason for cancelling the e-auction due to delay in getting consent to operate the two Chhattisgarh mines.
CIl had told the court that since consent to operate the mines had not been provided even after a month of applying for it, a decision was taken to cancel the e-auction. It had said that as per auction conditions, once the sale order was issued, coal had to be transported from the site by the successful bidder within 45 days, and since it did not know when the consent to operate would be granted, if at all, the e-auction was cancelled.
Disagreeing with CIl's contention, the court had said, "there is no logic to your decision. You could have kept it (sale order) pending. The authorities may have granted consent any day. Your logic is not understandable. It was an absurd decision." JPl had initially challenged the decision by way of an affidavit filed in a petition for quashing of a March 20 order of the government cancelling the bids of the company and Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) for four coal blocks amid speculation of cartelisation.
Thereafter, it had filed a fresh application on the court's direction. JPl had in its affidavit contended that while 49,000 MT of non-coking coal won by it was cancelled citing production issues at Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 mines, 2.5 lakh tonne per month of coal from same area was offered to NTPC on 'as is where is basis'.