Coal block auction restraint lifted after Union's undertaking to exclude end-user plant area from vesting and auction.

The Supreme Court recorded the Union's undertaking that it would not acquire the end-user plant and would earmark and exclude the plant area from the auction and vesting process for the coal block. In light of that undertaking and the pending writ petition, the Court declined to examine the wider rival submissions, set aside the interim restraint on auction, and left all questions of law open for the High Court. The operative effect was to permit the matter to proceed subject to the recorded assurance, without determining the merits of the underlying legal controversy.

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Issues: Whether the interim order restraining auction of the coal block should be set aside on the basis of the Union's undertaking to exclude the end-user plant area from auction and vesting under the Ordinance.

Analysis: The appeal arose from an interim order passed in pending writ proceedings concerning auction of a Schedule-I coal mine under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Second Ordinance, 2014. The Union stated that it did not propose to acquire the end-user plant as apprehended and undertook to earmark the portion of land occupied by the plant within the coal block area and exclude it from the auction and vesting process. In view of the pendency of the writ petition, the Court declined to examine the broader rival submissions and considered it appropriate, in the interests of justice, to record the undertaking and set aside the impugned order.

Conclusion: The interim order was set aside and the Union's undertaking was recorded, leaving all questions of law open for decision by the High Court.

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