M/s. Tirupati Niryat Private Limited vs State Of Jharkhand And Others

M/s Tirupati Niryat Private Limited has filed this contempt case invoking the provisions under Article 215 of the Constitution of India read with sections 11 and 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, for initiating a contempt proceeding against the opposite party no.2 who is holding the additional charge of the Managing Director of the Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation Limited (in short, JSMDC) and the opposite party no. 3 who is the in-charge Coal Marketing Cell of the JSMDC.

The allegations against the contemnors of committing contempt of this Court's order have been split up in three stages viz. (i) in not issuing the Delivery Order (in short, DO) for coal, (ii) in not providing requisite quality of coal and (iii) in not complying the orders dated 23rd and 24th November 2022 passed in the present proceeding.

The opposite party nos. 2 & 3 have pleaded that the DO for 75,800 MT coal in favor of the petitioner was issued on 12th October 2022 and time till 26th November 2022 was granted to it for lifting the aforesaid quantity of coal. However, soon thereafter, the petitioner filed a supplementary affidavit raising a grievance about supply of inferior quality of coal and non-supply of coal as per delivery schedule dated 13th October 2022. Therefore, on a consideration of the documents which were tendered in course of hearing on 23rd November 2022 by Mr. Abhinesh Kumar Singh, I/c Minor Mineral/Additional Charge (Coal) of the JSMDC, this Court issued certain directions to smoothen the process of supply of coal to the petitioner. Simultaneously, a direction was issued to the JSMDC to supply minimum 1500 MT coal to the petitioner and the last date of the DO was extended.

After the last date for supply of coal to the petitioner ended on 26th November 2022, an interlocutory application vide I.A No. 11354 of 2022 has been filed by the opposite party nos. 2 & 3 for recall of a part of the order dated 23rd November 2022 by which the validity of the DO has been extended.

A show-cause reply on behalf of the opposite party nos. 2 & 3 has also been filed to bring to the notice of this Court that the petitioner could not arrange 88 trucks per day as per the delivery schedule and, accordingly, did not lift the coal which was made available to it on each working day.

However, before we proceed to hear this contempt petition on merits, the learned Advocate General has submitted that the main grievance of the JSMDC is that there cannot be open-ended period of time provided to the petitioner for lifting coal. The learned Advocate General has drawn our attention to paragraph no. 14 of the order dated 23rd November 2022 by which the time for supply of coal by the JSMDC has been extended by this Court – but, no end date has been indicated.

The learned Advocate General states that to give quietus to the controversy which the parties have sought to raise in the present proceeding, further 10 days' time may be granted to the petitioner for lifting the balance quantity of coal.

The learned Advocate General further states that this liberty granted to the petitioner shall, however, be subject to the consequences which would follow on account of non-lifting of coal by the petitioner within such period.

Referring to Clause 10 of the Terms and Condition of Spot e-Auction Scheme, 2015 (For sale of Coal), the learned Advocate General has stated that, on failure of the petitioner to lift whole of the balance quantity of coal, proportionate amount of coal value which would remain unlifted shall be refunded to it. In this connection, the learned Advocate General has also drawn our attention to the order dated 7th April 2022 passed by the writ Court in WP(C) No. 1024 of 2022.

The aforesaid solution suggested by the learned Advocate General has been accepted by Mr. Indrajit Sinha, the learned counsel for the petitioner. The learned counsel for the petitioner, however, prays for 15 days' time for lifting of coal by the petitioner.

We, however, think that 12 days' time may be sufficient for the petitioner to take delivery of the remaining quantity of coal.

The learned counsel for the petitioner further states that the whole controversy revolves around the quality of coal which has been promised to the petitioner through the NIT dated

14 th December 2020. In this connection, our attention has been drawn to the NIT dated 14th December 2020 in which grade of coal is mentioned as “G 12 (GCV 3701 – 4000)”. The learned counsel for the petitioner would therefore submit that a direction in this regard may be issued to the competent authority of the JSMDC and the Mines Agent.

A consolidated rejoinder to I.A No. 11354 of 2022 and controverting the stand taken by the opposite party nos. 2 & 3 in the supplementary show-cause dated 7th December 2022 has been filed by the petitioner. In this affidavit, the petitioner has again raised grievances as regards quality of coal saying that the coal provided to it contained sand, dust and stone.

Mr. P.A.S. Pati, the learned GA-II who is assisting the learned Advocate General by referring to the lab report from Sun Tech Laboratory, Ranchi submits that the laboratory test has certified that Sikni Colliery has coal of G 12 grade.

As regards quality of coal, there seems to be some confusion at the loading site which we have already indicated in the previous orders. Furthermore, the letter dated 22nd November 2022 written by the Mines Agent to the GM (Mines), JSMDC and other documents filed by the JSMDC have also created a kind of confusion. In this communication to the GM (Mines), JSMDC, in the remarks column it is mentioned that “sufficient amount of residual coal” is being allowed to the petitioner but coal was not lifted by the DO holder. That appears to be the reason in the orders dated 23rd and 24th November 2022 this Court has indicated that the Mines Agent shall be responsible for ensuring that the requisite quality of coal is provided to the petitioner.

There is no dispute that, as per the NIT dated 14th December 2020, the JSMDC needs to provide coal of “G 12 (GCV 3701 – 4000)” grade “in one lot” to the petitioner. That is to say, the entire quantity of coal which is mined on a particular day at Sikni Colliery “in one lot” and transported at the loading site, without any segregation of steam coal. This becomes more clear when we look at the successive NITs which have been issued both for hand-picked coal and ROM but there is no such segregation made in the NIT dated 14th December 2020.

Mr. P. A. S. Pati, the learned GA-II has informed the Court that the last date for lifting of the coal by other DO holders would end on 23rd January 2023.

Therefore, keeping in view the large number of trucks which the petitioner shall be required to arrange every day and limited infra-structural facility at the loading site, the JSMDC may not permit any future DO holder for the next 12 working days, starting from 24th January 2023.

As agreed by both parties, we proceed to close the present contempt case with the following directions:

(i) within two weeks the JSMDC shall provide the lifting schedule to the petitioner stretching over a period of 12 working days;

(ii) as provided in the delivery schedule of 12 working days the petitioner shall start lifting of coal, from 24th January 2023;

(iii) on failure of the petitioner to lift the entire quantity of coal, the consequences shall follow;

(iv) the consequences which shall follow on non-lifting of the coal shall be as per Clause 10;

(v) the Mines Agent or the person who is in-charge of loading of coal shall permit 120 or more trucks per day for loading/lifting of coal by the petitioner;

(vi) with prior notice, the Mines Agent shall make available to the petitioner 2900 MT or more coal per day;

(vii) the Mines Agent shall ensure compliance of the Court's order; and

(viii) the opposite party no.2 who is holding the additional charge of the Managing Director of the JSMDC shall issue necessary directions in this regard for ensuring compliance of the Court's order.

Contempt Case (Civil) No. 620 of 2022 is closed.

I.A No. 11354 of 2022 stands disposed of.