HC strikes down SECL blacklist in hacking case

The Chhattisgarh high court has struck down an order by South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) blacklisting North West Sales & Marketing Co Ltd of Delhi in the recent incident of hacking at the portal that carries out e-booking of coal.

Written by Tapan Chakraborty

December 4, 2007 00:00 IST

The order was passed by a division bench of acting Chief Justice Jagdish Balla and Justice Dilip Deshmukh recently.

SECL had decided to blacklist 13 companies that were suspected of being involved in the manipulation of the auction process. The coal major was acting on the basis of a report filed by metaljunction, the service provider.

Following this, North West Sales had challenged SECL’s order in the high court, stating that it had no connection with the incident. North West said SECL blacklisted it without any notice or hearing, which is in violation of natural justice.

North West cited the cases of Irujan Equipment & Chemical Ltd versus the Government of West Bengal, AIR 1975, and Maneka Gandhi versus Union of India 1978 to support its arguments.

This article was first uploaded on December four, twenty seven, at zero minutes past twelve in the am.