Jindals challenge Coal Ordinance provisions in HC

Delhi High Court today agreed to hear tomorrow pleas of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Jindal Power Ltd (JPL) against the second Coal Ordinance 2014 provisions regarding determination of compensation payable to prior allottees towards mining infrastructure and land value.
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva listed the matter for tomorrow after it was mentioned before the court by senior advocate Rajiv Nayar.
The Jindal group companies' petitions came a day after the high court gave them relief in their first set of petitions in which they had challenged change of end-use of two blocks in Chhattisgarh and Odisha which had been earlier allocated to them.

The High Court had taken the blocks off the auction and directed a technical committee to review its own decision to change the end-use of the mines.
In the latest petitions, Jindal group has contended that the compensation the government has computed for some blocks in Chhattisgarh that were earlier alloted to it and which it was operating prior to cancellation of the allocations by Supreme Court last year, was "irrational".
Maintaining that various expenses incurred by it towards mining infrastructure and acquisition of land has not been considered by the government, the companies have sought that the ordinance's provision for computing compensation be declared "unconstitutional".

They have said that compensation for the mining infrastructure should be determined as per market value and not the value written in audited balance sheet of previous financial year.