The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to maintain status quo with regard to auctioning of three coal blocks — Utkal blocks in Odisha and Gare Palma IV/6 in Chhattisgarh — for which end-use specifications were changed to cater to demands from the power sector.
A special bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur also sought response from Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) and its promoter Naveen Jindal after the coal ministry challenged the Delhi High Court’s February direction to exclude the three blocks from the auction. The HC, while quashing the Centre’s decision to merge Utkal B-1 and Utkal B-2, and change the end use of the three blocks, had also directed the expert technical committee to review its own decision in this regard.
JSPL had been allocated Utkal B1 for operating a steel unit and Gare Palma IV/6 for a sponge iron industry. But the allocations, along with other 200 blocks, were cancelled by the Supreme Court last year and later, when re-auction was announced, their end-use was changed from steel and cement to power. This was challenged by JSPL on the ground that change of end-use from steel and iron to power had prevented it from bidding for them.
The HC then stopped the auction of the blocks and asked the government to review the change in end-use specifications of the two blocks.
