The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea by lobby group Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) for scrapping e-auction system for selling iron ore in Karnataka.
A bench presided over by Justice Ranjan Gogoi saw no reason to change the prevailing system, even though Karnataka and Central Empowered Committee has supported the application.
The FIMI has asked for an alternative mechanism for e-auction of iron ore extracted from Ballari, Tumakuru and Chitradurga mines, saying it was introduced as temporary system.
FIMI claimed that instead of e-auction, there should be long term agreement between the producers and buyers as part of the new mechanism. It has relied upon a report by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in this regard on April 28, 2016.
The plea was opposed by NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya which stated the e-auction was meant to provide the best price and royalty to the state government.
(Published 28 August 2017, 05:39 IST)
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