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Informist, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Wednesday said there would be no appropriation of INR 292.36 million from Vedanta Ltd.'s performance bank guarantee till the tribunal set up under The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 decides on the company's stay application against the Ministry of Coal. If an application for staying the appropriation of bank guarantee is preferred by Vedanta, this would be decided expeditiously by the tribunal, said a division bench of the high court. 

 

On Dec. 2, a single judge of the high court had asked Vedanta Ltd. to approach the tribunal against the Ministry of Coal's order directing State Bank of India to appropriate INR 292.36 million from the company's performance bank guarantee for not completing milestones in operationalising the Radhikarpur (West) coal mine in Odisha. The single judge had said that the status quo granted in July on the bank guarantee appropriation would continue to be in place.

 

The extension of the court's July order will be for 10 days or till Vedanta approaches the tribunal, whichever is earlier, Justice Amit Sharma of the single judge bench had said. The bank guarantee of INR 2.6 billion submitted by Vedanta should be kept alive by the ministry, Justice Sharma had said.

 

The single judge bench had said the issues raised by Vedanta had been disputed by the ministry, and the tribunal established under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act had jurisdiction to adjudicate on these contentions with respect to the provisions of the Coal Mine Development and Production Agreement signed between the two parties. Even otherwise, the disputed facts couldn't be decided by the high court in the present jurisdiction, it added.

 

Vedanta and the government signed the Coal Mine Development and Production Agreement in 2021, formalising the obligations and milestones for operationalising the mine. The ministry issued an appropriation order against Vedanta in July and asked SBI to transfer the amount to the Pay and Accounts Office. Challenging this, Vedanta said the order was passed arbitrarily and without considering the company's representation seeking an extension of timelines for achieving the milestones.

 

The sole ground on which the ministry sought to appropriate the performance bank guarantee was the delay in obtaining environment clearance, which, in turn, has resulted in delayed completion of the milestone, said Vedanta. The alleged delay of more than four months in completing the milestone was not solely attributable to the company, as it was due to various other factors, including COVID-19 and delays in the grant of statutory clearances, the company said.

 

At 1207 IST, shares of Vedanta Ltd. were up 2.2% at INR 527.25 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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