India’s Essel Mining has withdrawn its writ petition against the transfer of Essel’s Jilling iron ore mine in Odisha, paving the way for winning bidder Shyam to execute its mining lease with the state government.
Link to the supreme court order
In the Odisha iron ore auction earlier this year, Jilling Langalota mines received aggressive participation from bidders and Shyam Ores emerged as preferred bidder for the mine quoting a premium of 135%.The Supreme Court had withheld the transfer of Jilling iron ore mines to Shyam due to a writ petition filed by Essel Mining Industries Ltd, the previous leaseholder.
Essel Mining’s Jilling mine has an EC limit of 6.28 MnT pa and resources of 79.122 MnT. It recorded production of 6.27 MnT in FY19.
What was the case all about ?
The applicant (Essel) had obtained all statutory clearances on 8 October 2014 and filed l.A. No. 39 of 2014 for resumption of mining operations of Jilling- Langalota Mining Lease on 12 November 2014. However, IA No. 39 of 2014 remained pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court till February 2018. The Applicant was only allowed to resume its mining operations in Jilling-Langalota Mining Lease on 15 February 2018. Therefore, the Applicant could not continue mining operations over Jilling-Langalota Mining Lease for 39 months, i.e. 3 years and 3 months, the period during which its application for resumption was pending before this Hon’ble Court despite having all statutory clearances and for reasons beyond the control of the Applicant.
As such the Applicant had filed an IA No.7121 of 2020 before this Hon’ble Court praying for extension of the mining lease period of the Jilling-Langalota Mining Lease on account of time lost in litigation only for the period when the mine was not working/not resumed even though the Applicant had obtained all the statutory clearances/approvals required and which can be termed as reasons beyond the control of the Applicant.
In the meantime the State of Odisha has vide Notice (Inviting Tender (NIT) notified the Jilling-Langalota Mining Iron Ore Block for settlement afresh by way of auction dated 6 Dec’19 in exercise of power under Section lOB of the MMDR Act. The auction received aggressive participation and Shyam Ores turned out to be the successful bidder. However, with lock-down imposed the case hearing at Supreme Court was getting postponed and the mine lease transfer was put on hold. However in the latest update received, with withdrawal of the petition, Shyam Ores is now edging closer to receive confirmation letter from state govt.
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