Calcutta High Court is hearing an appeal filed by Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) against the decision of a single-judge bench allowing ABG Haldia Bulk Terminals to remove all its equipment from Haldia port.
Justice Sanjib Banerjee, on March 22 allowed ABG to remove all its equipment from Haldia port subject to the payment of any customs charges that may have been due.
KoPT was also asked by the judge to pay Rs 4 lakh as litigation cost, of which Rs 2 lakh would be paid to ABG and the remainder deposited with the state legal services authority.
Kolkata Port appealed against this decision at the High Court and the case is being heared by Justices Ashim Kumar Banerjee and Dipak Saha Ray. The two Justices passed an interim stay on the appeal filed by KoPT.
According to KoPT Council SN Mukherjee, the trial judge had rejected its plea without considering that KoPT had the right to hold ABGÂ’s equipment till the completion of work under its 10-year contract.
KoPT wants ABG to pay a compensation of Rs 233 crore for the losses incurred by the firmÂ’s pull out from Haldia Dock Complex. ABG itself created a situation to enable it to leave the work before its contract period expired by putting the blame on KoPT and others, KoPT argues.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.