Delhi High Court sets aside single-judge order asking Centre to extend oil contract with Vedanta till 2030

The Delhi High Court on Friday set aside a single-judge order directing the Centre to extend till 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 D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh allowed the central government's appeal against the single judge's order of May 31, 2018 order in favour of Vedanta, formerly Cairn India.

The detailed judgement is yet to be uploaded on the high court's website.

The central government had claimed that the PSC with Vedanta will fall under the new policy for such contracts. The contention was opposed by the company.

The single judge had held that Vedanta was entitled to an extension of its contract, which was to expire in 2020, for a further period of 10 years on the same terms and agreements when it was first entered into in 1995.

While the government's appeal was pending, the PSC was being extended from time to time for brief periods since May 2020.

The May 31, 2018, order had come on Vedanta's plea for extension of the PSC which the company and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) have with the government to extract oil from the Barmer block in Rajasthan.