Delhi High Court today termed as "absurd" CIL's reason for cancelling an e-auction of coal, in which Jindal Power Ltd (JPL) had got 49,000 metric tonnes of the fuel due to delay in getting consent to operate two Chhattisgarh mines.
Coal India Ltd (CIL) told a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva that since consent to operate the mines - Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 - had not been provided even after a month of applying for it, the PSU decided to cancel the e-auction.
CIL said as per auction conditions, once it issued the sale order, 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 state-run enterprise decided to cancel the e-auction.
"We did not want to keep it outstanding, in limbo. We did not know how long the consent will take. So we cancelled the e-auction," senior lawyer and CIL counsel Sandeep Sethi said.
Disagreeing with CIL's contention, the bench 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."
The PSU, however, contended that JPL cannot challenge its 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.
It said a fresh application needed to be filed. Following this, the court asked JPL to file a fresh plea during the day and listed the matter for hearing tomorrow.
