Supreme Court stays lease transfer of Jilling-Lanaglota Iron Ore & Manganese Mines to Shyam Ore
Bhubaneswar: While the 19-day long auction process has concluded on Tuesday, a legal tussle has come to fore involving one of the 19 mining blocks in Odisha.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday put a stay on transfer of Jiling-Langalota Iron Ore mines, in the Joda mining circle to the winning bidder Shyam Ore after a petition by the existing leaseholder Essel Mining & Industries Ltd (EMIL) of Aditya Birla Group. The stay will effective until further order. The next hearing will be held on the 3rd week of March.
In its petition, EMIL has demanded extension of lease period beyond March 31st citing that the mine was closed for a period of 3 years and 3 months, from November 2014 to February 2018 despite having all the statutory clearances.
In November 2014 the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) had recommended non-renewal of the mining lease citing massive illegal mining and other serious irregularities. However, in February 2018, the Supreme Court had allowed the company to resume mining.
In its fresh petition Essel Mining has requested the Court to direct the state government to extend the lease period for a period of 3 years and 3 months.
On 5th February, Jhadkhad based Shaym Ore has bagged the mining block after committing to pay 135% premium. The block has an estimated reserve of 72.84 million tonnes of Iron Ore and Manganese.
