M/s. Raiganj Consumer Forum v. Union of India & Ors.

ITEM NO.301 COURT NO.7 SECTION X

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Writ Petition (Civil) No.188/2004

M/S. RAIGANJ CONSUMER FORUM Petitioner
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA. & ORS. Respondents

[PART HEARD BY: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DIPANKAR DATTA AND HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANMOHAN]
MR. SUNIL FERNANDES, SENIOR ADVOCATE WITH MR. SANCHIT GARGA, ADVOCATE AS AMICUS CURIAE

WITH
C.A. No.3134-3137/2016 (IV)
CONMT.PET.(C) No.701/2021 in T.C.(C) No.2/2004 (XIV-A)
CONMT.PET.(C) No.942/2021 in T.C.(C) No.2/2004 (XIV-A)
T.P.(C) No.1127/2024 (IV-D)
CONMT.PET.(C) No.845/2021 in W.P.(C) No.188/2004 (X)
(vide Hon'ble Court's order dated 16.07.2024, Mr. Sunil Fernandes, learned senior counsel has been appointed as Amicus Curiae)

Date : 28-10-2026 These matters were called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DIPANKAR DATTA
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANMOHAN

For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee- 1042, AOR Mr. P. D. Sharma- 494, AOR Mr. Navin Pahwa, Sr. Adv. Mr. Bhargava V. Desai, AOR Mr. Shivam Sharma, Adv. Ms. Prakriti Rastogi, Adv. Ms. Surabhi Tuli, Adv. Mr. Pankaj Kumar Mishra- 2427, AOR Mr. Shish Pal Laler, Adv. Mr. Hitesh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Atul, Adv. Mr. Vedant Pradhan, Adv. Mr. Pranav Singh Gautam, Adv. Mr. Hardik Giri, Adv. Mr. Shivam Sharma, Adv. Mr. R. C. Kaushik- 561, AOR Ms. Minakshi Vij- 1090, AOR Mr. Somnath Mukherjee- 998, AOR Mr. Gaurav Dhingra- 1789, AOR Ms. Suruchii Aggarwal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Soumya Dutta- 2537, AOR Mr. Viraj Kadam, Adv. Mr. Prashant Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Gurmit Singh, Adv. Mr. Arvind Singh Sangwan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, AOR Mr. Subornadeep Bhattacharjee, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Shailendra Bhardwaj- 717, AOR Mrs. Naresh Bakshi- 451, AOR Mr. Rana Ranjit Singh- 1256, AOR Mr. Vivek Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Ravish Singh, Adv. Mrs. Akanksha Singh, Adv. Mrs. Sweta Singh, Adv. Mr. Aniket Rajput, Adv. Ms. Saiyam Maan, Adv. Mr. Surya Kant- 706, AOR Mr. Shubham Bhalla- 2430, AOR Mr. Shree Pal Singh- 670, AOR Ms. Chitra Markandaya- 137, AOR Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi- 1723, AOR Mr. B. K. Pal- 120, AOR Mr. Arun K. Sinha- 38, AOR Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan- 1573, AOR Mr. Jatinder Kumar Sethi, D.A.G. Mr. Akshat Kumar, AOR Ms. Anubha Dhulia, Adv. Mr. Ramesh Kumar Mishra- 2260, AOR M/S. Ap & J Chambers- 1552, AOR Mr. Narender Hooda, Sr. Adv. Ms. Pallvi Hooda, Adv. Mr. Shiv Bhatnagar, Adv. Mr. Yuvraj Nandal, Adv. Ms. Tannu, Adv. Ms. Annu, Adv. Mr. Anand Krishna, Adv. Dr. Surender Singh Hooda- 2261, AOR Mr. S. Ravi Shankar- 1393, AOR Ms. Shalu Sharma- 1422, AOR Mr. Alok Gupta- 1378, AOR Mr. Ashok Kumar Singh- 1104, AOR Mr. Shantwanu Singh, Adv. Mr. Akshay Singh, Adv. Mrs. Pragya Singh, Adv. Mr. Tushar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Rahul Dubey, Adv. Mr. Rameshwar Prasad Goyal- 1350, AOR Mr. Ashwani Kumar- 1341, AOR M/S. K J John And Co- 1287, AOR Mr. Amarjit Singh Bedi, Adv. Ms. Surekha Raman, Adv. Mr. Shreyash Kumar, Adv. Mr. Harshit Singh, Adv. Mr. Sidharth Nair, Adv. Mr. G. Arudhra Rao, Adv. Mr. Abhijit Sengupta, AOR Mr. Navneet Singh, Adv. Mr. Vishal Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Rana Pratap Singh, Adv. Mr. Ram Krishna, Adv. Ms. Rajlakshmi, Adv. Dr. Lipika Sharma, Adv. Mr. Rajat Bhardwaj, A.A.G. Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Mr. K. S. Rana- 1129, AOR Ms. Vandana Sehgal- 1801, AOR Mr. Mohit Yadav, Adv. Mr. Sudhir Kumar Gupta- 674, AOR Ms. Minakshi Vij- 1090, AOR Mr. Yash Pal Dhingra- 1071, AOR Mrs. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. Mr. Arijit Prasad, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sudarshan Lamba, AOR Mr. Shashank Bajpai, Adv. Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh Ii, Adv. Mr. Raghav Sharma, Adv. Mr. Rajeeva Ranjan Rajesh, Adv. Mr. Sachin Sharma, Adv. Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee- 1042, AOR Mr. S. N. Pandey, Adv. Mr. L. O. Jha, Adv. Mr. H. P. Mishra, Adv. Ms. Soumya Pandey, Adv. Ms. Ritu Shukla, Adv. Ms. Habiba, Adv. Mr. Chander Shekhar Ashri, AOR Mr. Somnath Mukherjee- 998, AOR Mr. Pankaj Kumar Mishra- 2427, AOR Ms. Sunita Sharma- 993, AOR Mr. Anurag Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Aman Jaiswal, Adv. Mr. Hari Om, Adv. Mr. Preeti Saran, Adv. Mr. Bhargava V. Desai- 97, AOR Mr. Soumya Dutta- 2537, AOR Mrs. Tanuj Bagga Sharma- 2518, AOR Dr. M.k Ravi, Adv. Mr. Denson Joseph, Adv. Mr. Navdeep Singh, Adv. Mr. Rajat Bhardwaj, A.A.G. Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Mr. Samir Malik- 2534, AOR Mr. Rajesh Kumar Chaurasia- 2533, AOR Mr. Surya Pratap, Adv. Mr. Nitin Kumar Gupta, Adv. Mr. Sujeet Kumar, Adv. Mr. Shailendra Kumar Nirmal, Adv. Mr. Onkar Prasad, Adv. Mr. Raavi Yogesh Venkata- 2874, AOR Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR Mr. Srikanth Varma Mudunuru, Adv. Mr. R. K. Jain, Sr. Adv. Dr. Mansi Jain, Adv. Ms. Bhoomika, Adv. Mr. Raghav Sabharwal- 3171, AOR Mr. Ayush Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. Dharmesh Shersia, Adv. Mr. Devendra Singh- 2549, AOR Mr. Aakash Nandolia- 3496, AOR Mr. Sandeep Malik, Adv. Mr. Azad Khokar, Adv. Mr. Vaibhav Sharma, Adv. Mr. Tara Chand Singh, Adv. Mr. Bhanu Prakash Singh, Adv. Ms. Pooja, Adv. Ms. K. M. Vekash, Adv. Mr. Shailendra Kumar Nirmal, Adv. Mr. Vinay Jaidka, Adv. Ms. Prabjeet Sandhu, Adv. Mr. Amit- 2965, AOR Mr. Vikas Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Jayant K. Sud, Sr. Adv. Mr. Mayank Jain, Adv. Mr. Ramesh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Madhur Jain, Adv. Mr. Arpit Goel, Adv. Ms. Aakriti Dhawan, Adv. Mr. Deepak Jain, Adv. Mr. Kartik Yadav, Adv. Mr. Shoumik Chowdary, Adv. Mr. Nikilesh Ramachandran, AOR Mr. Zubair Rasid Bangroo, Adv. Mr. Kedar Nath Tripathy- 1749, AOR Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Anurag- 2769, AOR Mr. Anshuman Siddharth Nayak- 3280, AOR Mr. Rahul Kulhare, Adv. Mr. Aman Mudgal, Adv. Mr. Ratnadeep Raha, Adv. Mr. Piyush Kumar Panigrahi, Adv. Mr. Mohit D. Ram, AOR Ms. Maulshree Pathak- 3681, AOR Mr. Joby P. Varghese- 2598, AOR Mr. Ajit Kumar Sinha, Sr. Adv. Mr. Govind Jee, AOR Mr. Omanakuttan K K, Adv. Mr. Gajjala Bhaskar, Adv. Mr. Ajay Pal- 1570, AOR Mr. Brender Singh Chawdhary, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv. Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Anupam Kumar, Adv. Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv. Mr. Varun Varma, Adv. Ms. Asmita Mishra, Adv. Mr. Sunil Fernandes, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sanchit Garga, AOR Mr. Shashwat Jaiswal, Adv. Mr. Bhanu Pratap Singh, Adv. Ms. Diksha Arora, Adv. Ms. Oorja Goel, Adv. Mr. Vijender Kumar, Adv. Ms. Samapika Biswal- 3177, AOR Mr. Lzafeer Ahmad B. F., AOR Mr. Chand Qureshi, AOR Mr. Vijay Kumar, Adv. Mr. Sundeep Pandhi, Adv. Ms. Sanju, Adv. Mr. Rahul, Adv. Ms. Reena Malhotra, Adv. Mr. Pravin Kumar, Adv. Mr. Rohit Beniwal, Adv. Dr. Itbar Singh, Adv. Mr. Pinku Singh- 3591, AOR Mr. Sanjeev Sahay, Adv. Ms. Shagufa Salim- 2979, AOR Mr. Archit Rajput, Adv. Mr. Karan Deep Singh, Adv. Mr. Hariom, Adv. Mr. Shish Pal Laler, Adv. Mr. Hitesh Kumar, Adv. Mr. Aayush Rathore, Adv. Ms. Ishita Rathore, Adv. Mr. Chaman Prakash, Adv. Mr. Hardik Giri, Adv. Mr. R. C. Kaushik- 561, AOR Ms. Nandita Rao, Sr. Adv. Mr. Rajat, Adv. Mr. Khan Ahmad Darvesh, Adv. Mr. Shaurya Lamba, Adv. Mr. Aditya Soni- 2958, AOR Mr. Sumeer Sodhi- 2596, AOR Mr. Gaurav Dhingra- 1789, AOR Mr. Ramesh Kumar Mishra- 2260, AOR Mr. Ronak Karanpuria- 3068, AOR Mr. Siddharth Mittal- 2337, AOR Mrs. Shilpa G Mittal, Adv. Mr. Viraj Rathee, Adv. Mr. Nimish Chib, Adv. Mr. Jatin Rana- 4109, AOR Mr. Abhay Choudhary M, Adv. Ms. Anuradha Mutatkar- 1833, AOR Mr. Divyanshu Kumar Srivastava- 3564, AOR M/S. Lawyer S Knit & Co- 1336, AOR Mr. Anand Shankar- 3034, AOR Ms. Meenakshi Arora, Sr. Adv. Mr. Gautam Bajaj, Adv. Mr. Nitin Saluja- 2868, AOR Mr. Chandratanay, Adv. Ms. Nanakey, Adv. Ms. Vagisha Kochar- 3387, AOR Mr. Rajan Chawla- 2875, AOR Mr. Anand Shankar- 3034, AOR Mr. D.V.S.S Somayajilu, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sumanth Nookala- 2167, AOR Mr. Sunil Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Abhishek- 1785, AOR Mr. Sanyat Lodha- 2975, AOR Mr. Jatinder Kumar Sethi, D.A.G. Mr. Akshat Kumar, AOR Ms. Anubha Dhulia, Adv. Ms. Vandana Sharma Bhandari- 2502, AOR Mr. Saket Singh, Sr. Adv. Ms. Sarvshree- 3676, AOR Ms. Somyashree, Adv. Ms. Prema Singh, Adv. Mr. Shashibhushan P. Adgaonkar- 2012, AOR Mr. Rishi Kapoor- 3396, AOR Mr. Himanshu Shekhar- 1184, AOR Mr. Sahil Tagotra, AOR Mr. Joshua Samuel, Adv. Ms. Shreya Kasera, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Pandey, Adv. Mr. Narender Hooda, Sr. Adv. Ms. Pallvi Hooda, Adv. Mr. Shiv Bhatnagar, Adv. Mr. Yuvraj Nandal, Adv. Ms. Tannu, Adv. Ms. Annu, Adv. Mr. Anand Krishna, Adv. Dr. Surender Singh Hooda- 2261, AOR Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi- 1723, AOR Mr. Arjun Garg- 1807, AOR Mr. Anup Kumar, AOR Mrs. Neha Jaiswal, Adv. Mr. Shivam Kumar, Adv. Ms. Arshi, Adv. Ms. Achint Priya, Adv. Ms. Shubhangi, Adv. Ms. Nimisha Thomas, Adv. Mr. Atul Aggarwal, Adv. Ms. Sweta Rani- 2541, AOR Mr. Prashant Jain, Adv. Mr. P. N. Puri, AOR Mr. Jatinder Kumar Bhatia- 1364, AOR Ms. Diva Singh, Adv. Mr. Devendra Singh, AOR Mr. Avinash Poddar, Adv. Mr. Ankit, Adv. Mr. Bhupendra Yadav, Adv. Mr. Arunender Thakur, Adv. Ms. Kheyali Singh, AOR Mr. Saksham Gahoi, Adv. Mr. Jagjit Singh Chhabra- 1320, AOR Mr. Jasraj Singh Chhabra, Adv. Mr. Subhasish Bhowmick- 1779, AOR Mr. R. Sharath- 3641, AOR Mrs. Priya Puri- 1880, AOR Mr. Sachin Dubey, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Mishra, Adv. Ms. Riya Dogra, Adv. Ms. Tanya Srivastava- 3682, AOR Mr. Abhinand Kumar Shavili, Sr. Adv. Ms. Anjani Aiyagari, AOR Ms. Vandana Khanorkar, Adv. Ms. Vagisha Kochar, AOR Mr. Mansyumer Singh, Adv. Ms. Jyoti Sharma, Adv. Mr. Pawan Aneja, Adv.

[NyayVidhan note: paragraphs 1-6 carry the Court's numbers; para 4 keeps its sub-items i.-v. as printed. This Record of Proceedings is itself the order of the Court; no separate signed order is printed. Pages 1-20 of the official copy list 284 interlocutory-application entries and, with the writ petition, 184 transferred cases (T.C.(C) Nos. of 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2019: 162, 5, 12 and 5 cases) besides the connected matters shown above; those lists are not reproduced here. The lists of counsel are given on one line for each side; the digital-signature block (dated 29.10.2026) and page numbers are left out. Footnote markers are shown as [1]-[3].]

[Source: Supreme Court of India, api.sci.gov.in — order dated 28 October 2026.]

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R

1. The previous order dated 17th September, 2026 required progress to be reported today.

2. We are afraid, the timeline specified in such order has again been breached.

3. Such breach is condoned having regard to the reasons that are sought to be proffered but we impress upon the parties to henceforth abide by the timelines to be stipulated by us.

4. Certain clarifications have been sought for, which are provided hereunder:
i. Auction of the properties at Peddapalli district may proceed excluding 164.06 square yards which, it is reported, is in the lawful possession of National Thermal Power Corporation since 16th May, 1980.
ii. The net worth requirement for bidders may be kept at 25% of the reserve price, as suggested by SBI Capital Markets Limited[1].
iii. For refund of Earnest Money Deposit[2] to the unsuccessful bidders, we modify the order dated 15th May, 2025 and direct that EMD may be refunded within a maximum period of 07 (seven) working days after declaration of the result of the tender process.
iv. The model tender documents as well as a draft sale deed, we are informed, have now been forwarded to the Income Tax Department which would require 07 (seven) days' time to look into and finalize the same and forward it to SBI CAPS. Let this timeline be maintained.
v. Mr. Akhtar, Vice President (PA&SF), SBI CAPS has assured the Court that within a period of two days of receipt of the documents from the Income Tax Department, the Request for Proposal[3] can be issued. We direct that by 10th November, 2026, the RFP has to be issued.

5. So far as the desirability of issuing directions to the Golden Forest (India) Limited (G.F.I.L.) Committee to deal with the unclaimed amount, we are in the midst of hearing Mr. Vikas Singh, learned senior counsel. Due to paucity of time, hearing has to be adjourned today.

6. Re-list the writ petition along with the connected matters on 09th December, 2026 at 02:00 P.M., subject to obtaining orders from the Hon’ble the Justice Chief Justice of India.

(MANIK KUMAR) SENIOR PERSONAL ASSISTANT
(SUDHIR KUMAR SHARMA) COURT MASTER (NSH)

Footnotes
[1] SBI CAPS
[2] EMD
[3] RFP