SC orders status quo on Orissa plea

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a petition filed by the Orissa government challenging the Orissa High Court judgment cancelling the licence granted by the state to POSCO for iron ore mining in the Kandadhar mines in Sundergarh district. The high court had ordered the cancellation of the licence given to POSCO in 2009 on the basis of a petition filed by Geomin Minerals and Marketing P Ltd,which claimed preferential rights on the basis of its application in 1991. A Bench of Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik ordered status quo until the next date of hearing.