Balco moves HC against cancellation of its bid for coal mine

Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) today moved Delhi High Court against cancellation of its bid, which was the highest, and annulment of the tender process for a Chhattisgarh coal block.
Balco's move comes two days after a similar plea was moved by Jindal Power Ltd (JPL) whose bids for three mines in Chhattisgarh were cancelled by the Coal Ministry, which also cancelled the tender process for the mines.
The aluminium company's plea was mentioned by senior advocate Rajiv Nayar before a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva which agreed to hear it tomorrow.
JPL's pleas with respect to two of the mines, Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 in Chhattisgarh, is also listed for hearing tomorrow as the mines had been alloted to Coal India Ltd(CIL).

The court had, however, ordered the ministry to maintain status quo with regard to the third mine, Tara, till April 16.
While passing the order, the court had also asked the Ministry how it could allot a mine to CIL when it had been earmarked for allocation through auction.

In its plea, Balco too has sought quashing of the Ministry's March 20 order cancelling bids of JPL and Balco for four coal blocks amid speculation of cartelisation.
The government was re-examining the bids for nine coal blocks, including those where JPL and Balco had emerged as top bidders in the recently held auction.

Jindal Power had emerged as successful bidder for Gare Palma IV/2, Gare Palma IV/3 and Tara coal blocks, while Balco had successfully bid for Gare Palma IV/1 coal block.
So far, a total of 33 coal blocks have been auctioned in two tranches. While in the first lot 19 coal mines were auctioned, in the second lot 14 coal blocks went under the hammer.