Delhi HC agrees to examine govt's refusal to extend Vedanta's contract

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has ordered status quo on an offshore oil block off the Gujarat coast, while agreeing to look into the government's refusal to extend the contract of Vedanta Ltd, which had operated it since 1998.

The Anil Agarwal-led natural resources conglomerate had approached the high court against denial of contract extension and subsequent handing over of the CB-OS/2 block to state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.

Rejecting the government's contention questioning the maintainability of Vedanta's petition, Justice Amit Bansal sought response from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, ONGC and others.


The case required "detailed consideration", the judge said in the order pronounced Tuesday, and posted the matter for February 27. Details or the order were uploaded on the court website Wednesday.

Fairness in all executive decisions is the essence of the right to equality as provided in the Constitution, the court said. If a dispute is raised with respect to fairness of such an action, then it can be examined for limited purposes by constitutional courts, especially when there is no other remedy, the judge said.