Delhi High Court Rejects Vedanta’s Plea To Export Crude From Barmer Oilfield

The Delhi High Court rejected Vedanta Ltd.’s plea to allow it to export crude oil from its Barmer field in Rajasthan, saying “there was no merit in the appeal”.

A division bench comprising Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva delivered the judgment.

The case arose from an appeal against an earlier judgment by Justice Manmohan of Delhi High Court, that turned down permission to export oil. Permission to export oil, according to the earlier judgment, could be granted only after India becomes self-sufficient in the commodity.

Vedanta had argued there was no policy presented in court that barred oil export. The government had maintained that allowing oil exports was counter to its policy.

India imports over two-thirds of its oil, which is also the largest contributor to its trade deficit. India’s crude oil import bill is likely to increase by about $26 billion, the newswire PTI reported citing government officials, in the current fiscal as the rupee weakened considerably against the U.S. dollar., resulting in costly imports.