New delhi: The government on Monday is believed to have allotted the three cancelled coal blocks, for which JSPL and Balco had emerged as the highest bidders in the recently concluded auctions, to state-owned miner Coal India Limited. Meanwhile, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) on Monday moved Delhi High Court against the decision of the Centre to cancel coal blocks allocated to it.
“Three coal blocks — Gare Palma IV/1, IV 2 and IV 3 under Schedule II mines (blocks under production) have been on Monday allotted to Coal India Ltd. JSPL and Balco had been successful bidders for these blocks,” a highly placed source said.
The development comes amid Jindal Steel and Power Ltd on Monday moving the Delhi High Court against the decision of the Centre to cancel the coal blocks saying that the company apprehends that the blocks might be allocated to someone else as the government is “moving very fast”.
The source said the government decided promptly to allot the blocks to CIL as the Supreme Court had allowed companies to continue mining till March 31 in blocks where coal production had already started. The Jindal’s petition was mentioned before a bench of Justices B.D. Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva by senior advocate Rajiv Nayar who sought an urgent hearing.
The court listed the matter for hearing on Monday before the appropriate bench. Meanwhile, shares of JSPL fell by 6.3 per cent after government rejected its bids for 3 coal mines, eroding the company’s market value by Rs 951.5 crore. During the day the stock slumped nearly 15 per cent to touch intra-day low of Rs 140.25 on the BSE.
