M/S. ASHOKA SMOKELESS COAL INDUSTRIES PVT. LTD. AND ORS. versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

Citation: [2005] SUPP. 5 S.C.R. 718 · Decided: 12-12-2005 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: S.B. SINHA, R.V. RAVEENDRAN
Open in Lexace · Ask the AI about this case
Judgment (excerpt)

A· MIS. ASHOKA SMOKELESS COAL INDUSTRIES PVT. LTD. AND ORS. 
v. 
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. 
DECEMBER I 2, 2005 
B 
[S.B. SINHA AND R.V. RA VEENDRAN, JJ.] 
Auction: 
£-auction-Coal India Ltd and its subsidiaries introducing scheme for 
C sale of coal through &-auction-Writ petitions filed in various High Courts 
by industrial undertakings having coal linkage with Coal India Ltd and its 
subsidiaries contending that under the new scheme they were required to pay 
more than what was earlier known as the notified price-SLP and Transfer 
Petition filed before the Supreme Court-Petitions pending before various 
D High Courts transferred to Supreme Court-,-Held, petitioner companies/firms, 
having coal linkage, would pay in addition to the notified price, 33 113% 
of the enhanced price, each time they claim supply of coal to them based on 
the linkage and would furnish security for the balance of 66 213% of the 
enhanced price with an undertaking filed in this Court that the said part of 
the price will also be paid within 6 weeks of the decision of this Court in. 
E the writ petitions in case the writ petitions are decided against the 
petitiOners-The Coal India Ltd and its subsidiaries undertake that in case 
this Court upholds the challenge made by the petitioners and allows the writ 
petitions filed by them, the enhanced price of 33 113% now to be paid by the 
petitioners will be refunded to them within 6 weeks 'of the judgment of this 
F Court with interest thereon at 12% per annum from the date of payment till 
the date of return to the petitioners-.The coal as per the linkage will be 
supplied to the concerned petitioner within a period of 3 weeks from the date 
of such payment-It is clarified that there will be no obligation on the part 
of the Coal lndia Ltd and its subsidiaries to supply the coal as per this 
interim order in the case of those who have not complied with the order for 
G payment of 33 113% of the difference in price in addition to the notified price 
and for furnishing of security for the balance 66 213% of the enhanced price, 
and filing the undertaking in this Court to pay the entire amount if they do 
not succeed in their challenge-Interim order-Constitution of India-Article 
139-A-Coal-Supply of 
H 
718 
ASHOKA SMOKELESS COAL INDUSTRIES PVf. LTD. v. U.0.1. 
719 
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Special Leave Petition (C) No. A 
20471 of2005. 
From the Judgment and Order dated 13. 9 .2005 of the Jharkhand High 
Court in W.P.(C) No. 2460of2005. 
WITH 
SLP(C)Nos.20541,20542,21792,22596,23302,23305,23323,23324, 
23325, 23326, 23327, 23345, 23374, 24403, 24034/2005, T.P. (C) No. 107-118/2005, 
W.P.(C) No. 67/2005, T.P.(C) Nos. 73, 510-512, 554-557, 558-559, 470, 471, 474, 
477,484,480,479,478,486,503-504,505-509,514-515,516,517-519,520,521-
B 
524, 525, 526-528, 533-534, 542-543, 544-545, 546, 535-537, 538, 550-552, 560-561, c. 
672-673, 674, 680-681, 687-690, 492, 493, 494, 495, 496, 777-789/2005. 
K.K. Venugopal, R.F. Nariman, M.L. Venna, S.K. Dubey, Rana Mukherjee, 
Rajendra Krishan, Siddharth Gautam, Goodwill Indeevar, Rajesh Singh, Pankaj 
Singh, Devashish Bharuka, Gouri Karuna Das, Ms. Anu Gupta, Kamal Kant 
Tripathee, S.D. Sanjay, Dr. Sushi! Balwada, Pankaj Bhagat, Anip Sachthey, D 
Shriniwas R. Khalap, Mohit Paul, M.P. Jha, Ram Ekbal Roy, Harshvardhan Jha, 
S. Muralidhar, Manish S. Venna, Anupam Lal Das, Manish Kr. Saran, Rajendra 
Krishna, Manish Verma and K.S. Bhati for the Petitioners. 
Goolam E. Vahanvati, Solicitor General, Soli J. Sorabji and Ajit Kumar E 
Sinha for the Respondent. 
Krishan Mahajan, V.K. Varma, Manish Tiwari, Vivek Sood, P.K. Jain, C.L. 
Pandey, Dr. Meera Agarwal, R.C. Mishra, Rakesh K. Khanna, Dr. Rashmi 
Khanna, Shashank Shekhar, Surya Kant, Gaurav Agrawal, Sourav Agrawal, 
Jhanavi Worah, Mrs. Akita Agrawal, Rajiv Mehta, G. Ramakrishna Prasad, F 
Bharat Sangal, Mohanprasad Meharia, Amit Meharia and B.B. Singh for 
Central Agency. 
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by 
ORDER 
l. These petitions for special leave to appeal are filed by Industrial 
Undertakings which have coal linkage with Coal India Limited and its 
subsidiaries. The Coal India Ltd. and its subsidiaries introduced a new scheme 
G 
for sale of coal through E-auction. This meant that the industrial concerns 
which had linkage with Coal India Ltd and its subsidiaries for the supply of H 
720 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2005] SUPP. 5 S.C.R. 
coal to them had to pay more for the coal compared to what they wer
Excerpt shown. Read the full judgment & AI analysis in Lexace.