With the Orissa government dallying on going to the Supreme Court against the High Court order cancelling recommendation of prospecting licence (PL) for Khadadhar iron ore deposits in favour of Posco, the South Korean steel major has filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court challenging the high court order.
The petition is in two parts. The first one seeks an interim stay on the high court order and the second is for quashing it. The SLP was filed on October 18.
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 over 2,500 ha of iron ore bearing land at Khandadhar in Sundergarh district in favour of Posco India.
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 Justices B P Das and B P Ray had directed the state government to take a fresh decision on the recommendation of the PL in favour of Posco, giving preferential right of consideration to the petitioner.
While doing so, the court had rejected the state government’s plea that Khandadhar was a notified area and observed there was no special reason to recommend the PL for this area in favour of Posco.
Hence, the high court had directed the state government to conduct a fresh hearing of all the 226 applicants for the Khandadhar mines.Following this setback, the state government had announced that it would go to the Supreme Court against the HC order. However, it is yet to file the SLP in the apex court. With the deadline for filing the SLP (three months from getting the certified copy of the HC order, plus 10 days’ condonation period) only couple of days away, a source said Posco, restive about the delay by the state government, had approached the apex court on its own.
“We do not know if Posco has gone to the Supreme Court on the matter. But we will shortly file our SLP,” said a senior official of the state law department. He said Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramanium was ready with the petition and might file it in the apex court on behalf of the state government in a day or two.
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On the premises on which the state would challenge the HC order, he said: “Posco’s proposed mega steel project in Orissa is special as it will make use of Finex technology in making steel. Besides, the project, costing Rs 54,000 crore, is the country’s single largest FDI.”
“Contrary to the Orissa HC’s claim that the Khandadhar mines was a non-notified area, the state government in its appeal in the Supreme Court would say that the area had been notified and hence we could dispose of applications and recommend PL cases based on merit. Since Posco project is special, the state government gave it a preferential treatment and recommended its case for PL, even though there were other applicants before Posco,” he added.
The Orissa government has invoked Sections 11 (3) and 11 (5) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, to recommend Posco India’s PL case.