HC upholds Odisha order on sale of ore to local industries

In a reprieve to the state government, the Odisha High Court (HC) on Wednesday upheld the state government's notification for the standalone mining companies to sell at least half their extracted ore to industries not having mines in the state.

"The HC today said that the state government has the right of pre-emption under section 27 of Miner Concession Rules. But for distributing the minerals to the units, the court observed that there is no mechanism in place. It directed the state government to devise a mechanism in three months for proper implementation of the notification," said Subhash Chandra Lal, counsel for the petitioner.

If the mechanism will not be formulated in three months, then the notification of the state government will be illegal, ruled a two member division bench of the HC comprising Chief Justice, A K Goyal and Justice, AK Rath.

It may be noted, the Centre had written to the state government stating that it (state) didn't have the power to issue such a notification.

The All Odisha Steel Federation, represented by PL Kandoi, had filed a writ petition in the HC making a prayer for the implementation of the state government's direction and to ignore the Centre's direction. But the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMMI) and few others had made a reverse prayer to declare the state's notification as illegal in view of the Centre's direction," Lal added.

The steel & mines department had notified the resolution to sell 50 per cent of extracted ore to the local players not possessing mines on December 5, 2012.