Adani-led coal mining firm charged Rajasthan PSU over Rs 1,400 crore: Jaipur court
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New Delhi: A district court in Rajasthan’s Jaipur ordered Adani Group-led coal mining firm to pay a fine of Rs 50 lakh after the state government accused the firm of ‘always extorting’ it and ‘making wrongful gain’, Scroll reported.
It is reported that the firm earned more than Rs 1,400 crore in transportation charges at the cost of the government after it ‘very humbly’ complying with coal mining firm’s ‘arm-twisting’ tactics to ward off ‘crippling’ power shortages in the state.
The judgement on July 5 directed the state government to get the Comptroller and Auditor General to audit the deal between them. However, the Rajasthan High Court stayed these directions 13 days later.
The details of nearly two-decade-old deal show that in 2007 the ministry of coal allocated a coal block, called Parsa East and Kente Basan having over 450 million tonnes of coal, in Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Arand forests to a Rajasthan state electricity firm, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL).
Later under the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government, RRVUNL entered into a joint-venture agreement with Adani Enterprises thus forming a new company.
The new company called Parsa Kente Collieries Limited with Adani Enterprises holding 74% of its shares, the state-owned firm having 26% of its shares, was responsible for mining the coal and transporting it from Chhattisgarh to its power plants in Rajasthan. This relatively new kind of the joint venture had the Adani Group in the ‘driver’s seat’.
Under this arrangement, the government reportedly paid a private contractor, called a Mine Developer and Operator, a fee for mining services with independent experts raising questions against this whole arrangement saying that this allowed private firm to profit from mines allocated to public sector.
However beginning in 2020 Adani-led joint venture and the Rajasthan state electricity firm entered in a legal battle, culminating in 2025, thus bringing to a rare scrutiny on Adani’s coal mine contracts in the country, according to the report.