Factual Matrix
In the Matter Sanvira Industries v. Rain CII Carbon Ltd In a group of civil appeals, the appellants contested the Delhi High Court’s ruling that the Central Government’s decision allocating pet coke was invalid. The allocation of amounts of raw pet coke, a byproduct of the refining of petroleum products, sand crude, and other heavy oils, was at issue in the current appeals. The criteria for distributing imported RPC among different entities and allocating it to them have been established by the Director General of Foreign Trade. Pet-coke import should only be allowed for industries using it as a feedstock or as a component of their manufacturing process, not as fuel, according to the Central Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s officers from the EnvironmentMinistry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the NCR Pollution Prevention and Control Authority. On 12-9-2018, Sanvira Industries appellants sent a letter to the Environment Pollution Control Authority outlining their capacity to produce calciners. The EPCA suggested 1.4 million tonnes of RPC imports annually, while Sanvira’s capacity was considered to be 2,000,000 MTPA. The Court ordered that the import of RPC, which may be used as feedstock to produce CPC, cannot be greater than 1.4 MMTPA. The Ministry of Commerce and Industries published a public notification on November 26, 2018, specifying the distribution of RPC quotas to qualified CPC manufacturing facilities under the specified maximum limit. On December 27, 2018, the DGFT started the procedure for assigning RPC. Applications were submitted by Sanvira and Rain CII Carbon (Vizag) Ltd., but the Court denied them all. Following an assessment of their facility by the Andhra Pradesh State Pollution Control Board, Sanvira’s allotment was enhanced. In a petition, the respondent contested the enhanced allocation, but the Single Judge Bench dismissed the claim. Sanvira’s enhanced capacity of 1,30,000 MT was only approved, according to the Division Bench of the High Court, based on an agenda item brought before the APPCB.
Supreme Court verdict
The appeals were dismissed and the High Court division bench’s challenged ruling was confirmed by the Supreme Court division bench, which was comprised of Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta.
The Division Bench properly said that the annual import restriction of 1.4 MTPA was based on the overall production capacity as of 09-10-2018, which was set by the Court based on the capacity revealed by all calciners. The Court found that this information was accurate. The Court further noted that although an SPCB might specify the maximum amount of calcined petroleum coke that could be produced, the approval to produce 3,30,000 MTPA of coke was only provided after November 29, 2018. The Court determined that the APPCB’s certificate, dated 04-05-2020, only attested to Sanvira’s installed capacity of 3,30,000 MTPA for producing calcined petroleum coke in accordance with the CTO. The Court denied the appeals, concluding that the Division Bench’s judgement was sound and free from errors.
CASE NAME – Sanvira Industries v. Rain CII Carbon (Vizag) Ltd. Civil Appeal No. 3834-3838 Of 2023