CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has ordered continuation of the status quo on the 581 acre of land under the control of Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT) at its paper mill in Choudwar of Cuttack district.
Disposing of a PIL seeking intervention against sale of the land, the Court directed that the status quo will continue till proceedings against BILT is pending before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
Srikanta Behera, a Choudwar-based social worker, had filed the petition seeking direction to the State government to take back all land from BILT and set up an industrial establishment over it. The Court had issued the status quo order on August 17, 2020.
The division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray said, “The status quo order passed by this Court on August 17 will continue during pendency of the proceedings before NCLT, subject to any further direction that may be passed by the NCLT in the IBC proceedings pending before it”.
The bench also directed the revenue authorities “to ensure that no request for mutation of any land of BILT is entertained during pendency of the proceedings and without prior permission of the NCLT”.
The Court disposed of the case after an affidavit filed by BILT referred to proceedings instituted before the NCLT, Mumbai Bench by one of the creditors under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). It was also submitted that an Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) has been appointed and an order has been passed by the NCLT on January 17, 2020 imposing a moratorium.
The question of disposal of any of the assets of BILT at this stage, without prior permission of the NCLT, does not arise, IRP’s counsel submitted before the court.
Choudwar paper mill was originally set up by the Titagarh Paper Mills (TPM). The paper mill, after it was declared sick, was sold to BILT in 1994.
The State government had at that time given a host of concessions, including lower power tariff, sales tax concession for 10 years and waiver of forest royalty, to the new owner.
The assets of the mill included over 600 acre of land in Choudwar and Angul. Nearly 333.34 acre of the 581.6 acre land of the paper mill in Choudwar is government land. But the paper mill has been under lock since 2002.