Adani forced to pay $77m over its ‘exploitative’ actions Down Under
Australia’s Supreme Court has ruled Adani must pay a total of A$106m ($77.4m) to four companies over the Indian miner’s “unconscionable conduct” as part of a contractual dispute centred around its Abbot Point terminal in north Queensland.
The four port users – Lake Vermont Resources, QCoal, Byerwen Coal and Sonoma Mine Management – had disputed the charges set by the coal terminal in relation to access and handling.
“The applicant exercised contractual power to obtain a large financial reward,” a Supreme Court judge wrote in delivering her verdict in the long running trial. “It deliberately chose to do so knowing that it would thereby disadvantage the respondents.”
The judge hit out at Adani’s “dishonest” tactics. “These matters are also significant markers which show that the applicant’s behaviour was more than simply robust, and possibly unfair, commercial dealing, but was exploitative,” she wrote.
Great news. As an Indian concerned by the manner in which the Adanis and Ambanis use dishonest tactics to win contracts, influence government officials and politicians to get things done in their favour, I support this development. In India the Adanis and Ambanis are too powerful and their influence has been growing.
Any natural resource that is owned by the Indian people is available for them- they merely have to ask politely. The current Indian Forest and Environment Ministry is a joke under its current Minister.
Many Indians think this increase in the influence of these groups is a recent phenomenon and link them with the BJP government, but this has been the way they have grown even during the Congress (UPA) years. The Senior Ambani who passed away many years ago, made it into a fine art and ruled the Indian business scene with virtually no competition when the country was closed to foreign investments.