On 17 July 2025, the Gandhidham Commercial Court (through Ld. Judge M. B. Parmar) vacated its earlier order of 9 July 2025, by which the Court had restricted the movement of approximately 40,000 metric tons of Tanzanian coal lying at Kandla Port.
The coal arrived in India from Tanzania. The purchaser of the coal, JSW International Tradecorp Pte Ltd, a Singaporean company within the JSW group, purchased this coal from Arm Ex Trading DMCC, a Dubai company.
After the coal reached India (the original delivery port was Salaya, Jamnagar), contamination was discovered, and huge metal pieces and stone boulders were found. Due to this contamination, the end buyer of the coal, Essar Power, rejected the lot, and it was diverted to Kandla.
The seller of the coal, Arm Ex Trading, approached the Gandhidham Court by claiming that JSW International Tradecorp Pte Ltd had not paid the dues, and the diversion of the vessel to Kandla was illegal.
Arm Ex Trading DMCC filed a case against a Gandhidham based ship operator, Kiaora Trans-Ship Pvt Ltd, who had provided the vessel for the transport of coal from Mtwara, Tanzania, to Salaya, India. Kiaora had also exercised lien over the cargo due to unpaid freight and other charges. Before the Gandhidham Court, Arm Ex Trading DMCC claimed that Kiaora had illegally diverted the vessel from Salaya to Kandla and they were illegally trying to sell the coal.
In an ex parte order of 09 July 2025, the Gandhidham Court restricted movement of cargo till the next date of hearing.
On the next date of hearing, Advocates for Kiaora remained present. The Gandhidham Court (Ld. Judge M. B. Parmar) heard the matter fully over a course of four (4) days.
After hearing all the sides, the Court concluded that Arm Ex had improperly obtained the order of 9 July 2025 by suppressing material facts. The court also observed that Arm Ex had already given possession of the cargo to JSW. The court also observed that the vessel was diverted to Kandla after obtaining permission from all concerned parties.
The Gandhidham Court, in a detailed order, permitted the movement of cargo and gave directions to the Port and Customs not to restrict the concerned party from dealing with the cargo in any manner.
Kiaora Trans-Ship Pvt Ltd, the successful party, was represented by Advocate Sukumar Tirthani, while Arm Ex Trading DMCC was represented by Advocate Yash J Patel.
