The Delhi High Court on Friday struck down a single judge order ordering the Center to extend until 2030 its production sharing contract (PSC) with Vedanta Ltd and ONGC to produce oil from the Barmer oil field in Rajasthan.
A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Judge Jyoti Singh allowed the central government appeal against the single judge’s order of May 31, 2018 in favor of Vedanta, formerly Cairn India.
The detailed ruling has yet to be uploaded to the higher court’s website.
The central government had stated that the PSC with Vedanta will be included in the new policy for such contracts. The company objected to the argument.
The sole judge had held that Vedanta was entitled to an extension of its contract, which would expire in 2020, for an additional period of 10 years on the same terms and agreements when it was first concluded in 1995.
While the government’s appeal was pending, the PSC was extended from time to time for short periods from May 2020.
The order of May 31, 2018, came after Vedanta’s request for an extension of the PSC that the company and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) have with the government to extract oil from the Barmer block in Rajasthan.
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