Rajasthan DISCOMs Move Supreme Court Against Order Of Rajasthan High Court In PIL Preempting Issues In A Pending Appeal Against JSW Entity
LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK
14 Dec 2024 2:03 PM IST
The Supreme Court recently stayed the observations made by the Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur in a Public Interest Litigation wherein Rajasthan DISCOMs were the Respondent parties. A division bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar in its November 11th order, while issuing notice ordered the following:
“Till the next date of hearing, the observations made in the impugned judgment will have no bearing on the writ appeal stated to have been filed by respondent no. 1, South West Mining Limited, which is pending before the High Court. The said writ appeal will be decided by the Division Bench of the High Court uninfluenced by any observations made in the impugned judgment ”
While doing so, the Apex Court categorically noted that the Impugned Judgement passed in the Public Interest Litigation was disposed of with certain observations, which will have a bearing on a separate appeal filed by South West Mining Ltd. which is a related entity of JSW Mining, India.
In the Special Leave Petition filed by the Rajasthan DISCOMs, it was contented through M/s Chambers of Kartik Seth, Advocate-On-Record that the said Public Interest Litigation filed before the Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur from which this SLP arises, is nothing but an abuse of the process of the court because the said writ petition was filed by one Neelam Bohra, an Advocate, clearly to serve the interest of South West Mining Ltd., the JSW related entity.
It was further pleaded in the Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court that the collusion between the PIL Petitioner before the High court and the private Respondent South West Mining Ltd. was categorically clear, when without even issuance of Notice in the said Writ (PIL), written submissions were filed by the said private respondent South West Mining Ltd. and were duly noted in the Impugned Judgement while disposing off the petition on the very first date.
It was further brought to the notice of the Court by Mr. Shyam Divan Sr. Adv along with Mr. Kartik Seth, Adv, while appearing for Rajasthan DISCOMs that the said Public Interest Litigation was filed only to substantially affect a Supreme Court expedited matter after South West Mining Limited unsuccessfully was relegated to High Court by the Supreme Court by its order dated 22.7.2024.
In the 22.7.24 order, Justice Vikram Nath & Justice Prasanna Bhalachandra Varale, while disposing the SLP (C) No. 11393/2024, had requested the High Court to dispose the matter within a period of 3 months. It was contended in the present SLP that even before the High Court could decide the matter as per directions of the Supreme Court, the Public Interest Litigation was filed by a meddlesome interloper who was just the front for South West Mining Ltd., the JSW related entity in which the Impugned Judgment has been passed which would have a direct bearing on the pending appeal of South West Mining Ltd. against the Rajasthan DISCOMs.
The court issued notice and fixed 21.1.2025 as the next date of hearing.
Case Title : Jodhpur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd. & Ors. V. South West Mining Ltd. & Another
Counsel For The Petitioners : Senior Advocate Shyam Diwan, Advocates Kartik Seth, Maithili Moondra, Raghav Sharma, Saurabh Chaturvedi, Chiranjeev Sharma, Pratiush Vishwanath And Tarun Tripathi.
