The Delhi HC on Tuesday dismissed Jindal Steel & Power’s petition seeking quashing of the grant of an Odisha coal block to Rungta Sons Pvt Ltd, which had emerged as the highest bidder in a February 28 e-auction for commercial coal mines.
Having lost the Chhendipada (revised) coal block to Rungta Sons, a subsidiary of Jharkhand-based Rungta Mines, JSPL had moved the HC saying it was wrongly and unfairly prevented from submitting its next higher bid. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad rejected JSPL’s plea for seeking a second auction.
JSPL claimed that technical glitches on the MSTC portal during the e-auction on February 27 had prevented it from submitting a higher bid for the mine that has 513 million tonnes of geological reserves. The company, one of the three technically qualified bidders for the coal mine, said it “was actively placing bids during e-auction for the coal mine”.
The government, however, had denied any technical glitch.
The company claimed to be vigilant, having immediately brought the technical glitch issue to the notice of SBI Capital Markets, which was advising the coal ministry on the auction.
