The Orissa government is set to file the Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court of India within three days, challenging the verdict of the Orissa High Court which had set aside the recommendation of prospective license (PL) in favour of Posco India.
“We will file the SLP in the Supreme Court in the Posco PL case within three days. The filing of SLP has nothing to do with the order of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) on the fate of the Posco project. The SLP needed to be filed within three months of the receipt of the certified copy of the judgement of the Orissa High Court and in that respect, we still have 3-4 days. There is also a condonation period of 10 days in case the SLP cannot be filed within the stipulated period”, a highly placed official source told Business Standard.
Speculation was rife that the state government was delaying the process of filing the SLP as it was awaiting the order of the MoEF on the Posco project which is due on Thursday.
It may be noted that in a verdict dated July 14, the Orissa High Court had set aside the recommendation of the state government for providing PL in favour of Posco India for Khandadhar iron ore mines in Sundergarh district.
Disposing of a writ petition of Geomin Minerals and Marketing Ltd, a Bhubaneswar-based company, a two-member division bench of the High Court comprising Justice B P Das and Justice B P Ray had directed the state government to take a fresh decision on the recommendation of PL in favour of Posco, giving preferential right of consideration to the petitioner.
The High Court had directed the state government to conduct a fresh hearing of all the 226 applicants for the Khandadhar mines.