Key Points
Gurugram: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued an order restraining the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd (HPGCL) from finalising the selection of a mine developer and operator (MDO) for the Kalyanpur-Badalpara coal block in Jharkhands Dumka district..
The interim order, pronounced on 22 July, came on a civil writ petition by a firm, M/s Barjora Mining Pvt Ltd, which said it had submitted the lowest bid for the tender but was disqualified as not meeting the terms and conditions..
The petitioner argues that this requirement doesnt apply since its a joint venture company (JVC) with three promoters, and meets the criteria set for such companies in the notice inviting bid (NIB)...
The petitioner firm, M/s Barjora Mining Pvt Ltd, is a Kolkata-based joint venture company (JVC) with three shareholders: M/s Ambey Mining Pvt Ltd (48 percent), M/s Godavari Commodities Ltd (26 percent) and M/s Maheshwari Mining Pvt Ltd (26 percent)...
The petitioner has asserted that since all three shareholders/promoters had 26 percent or more equity in the joint venture as specified in Clause 4 of the NIB the direct holding requirement had no bearing on the case.. Clause 4 of the NIB said: If the bidder is a joint venture company and the qualifying requirement (QR) is met by one of the promoters or jointly by more than one promoter, then each promoter on the basis of whom the joint venture company gets qualified shall have a minimum of 26 percent equity in the JV company and such promoter(s) shall give an undertaking to hold the said equity for a period till the mine achieves 85 percent of the contracted capacity of the project (contracted capacity means 3.00 million tons of coal per annum)..
