SC rejects Great Eastern Energy's plea for govt to consider coal block bid
This story was originally published at 12:45 IST on 14 July 2026
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NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Tuesday rejected Great Eastern Energy Corp. Ltd.'s plea seeking that the government treat its bid for a coal bed methane block in Raniganj Coalfield, West Bengal, as valid or in the alternative, reconduct the bidding process for the block. Observing that timeliness was essential in tender matters, the apex court upheld a Delhi High Court's May order which said that Great Eastern had not shown any bona fide intent in its attempt to submit the final bid.
Great Eastern Energy said that its bid could not be completed due to an alleged technical malfunction that arose at the critical stage of online price bid submissions on the e-bidding portal of the government, which displayed that the net worth of the petitioner was insufficient. Great Eastern Energy had contended that its net worth as on Mar. 31, 2025, was $86.60 million, far exceeding the prescribed minimum net worth requirement of $2.5 million as well as its own committed work programme bid of $41.65 million for 40 wells.
The government said that the entire process was a system-driven programme and there was no material on record to prove that it was on account of any technical glitch, that Great Eastern Energy failed to upload its financial bid. The government furnished the portal logs and the audit trail report and urged that no system side error or malfunction was recorded during the relevant period.
The high court held that the detailed examination of record in audit trail report tends to negate any systematic malfunction, a position that remains uncontroverted by Great Eastern, especially in respect of successful submission of one of the bidders. As such, Great Eastern's allegation of a bid value or net worth validation error was neither manifestly corroborated nor disproved by the logs as provided by the portal operator, the high court said. Challenging the high court's order, Great Eastern moved the apex court. End
US$1 = INR 96.10
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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