Vesting of coal blocks subject to outcome of pleas: HC

Delhi High Court today said the Centre's final vesting orders with regard to three coal blocks would be subject to the final outcome of pleas of companies which were prior allotees and had challenged the 2014 Coal Ordinance provisions.
A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva passed the order with regard to the Jitpur and Dumri coal blocks in Jharkhand and Sial Ghoghri block in Madhya Pradesh which had been earlier allotted to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), Nilachal Iron and Power Ltd (NIPL) and Prism Cement Ltd respectively.
The court also issued notice to Coal Ministry and sought its response by April 8 on the pleas of JSPL, NIPL and Prism.

The companies have alleged that the Ministry's calculation of compensation was much less than the figures they had arrived at.
The High Court had last Thursday directed the government not to pay the secured creditors of the companies, which had failed to win coal blocks earlier allocated to them, till their pleas alleging under-compensation for their mining infrastructure, were decided.
The order was passed on the pleas of various iron and steel and power companies, like Jindal, GVK Power, Jayaswal Neco, Prakash Industries, Utkal Coal among others.
The court said government orders vesting the mines, earlier owned by these companies, with the successful bidders would be subject to final outcome of their pleas challenging the 2014 Coal Ordinance provisions on method of determining compensation for mining infrastructure.

These matters have been listed for hearing before the same bench on April 8.