A coal company is taking the NSW government to the High Court in a last-ditch bid to overturn a law that stripped it of a corruption-tainted exploration licence.
It is the second constitutional challenge to the law, passed in response to findings by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) that some licences held by miners were so tainted by corruption they be revoked.
NuCoal Resources, the owner of one of the cancelled licences, claims the law amounts to an act of judicial power by the NSW parliament, which is prohibited by the state and federal constitutions.
It also argues the law punishes NuCoal without affording it the proper legal rights to defend its position.
NuCoal acquired the Doyles Creek exploration licence when it bought in 2009 the privately-owned Doyles Creek Mining - once chaired by ex-union official John Maitland.
Mr Maitland, along with former Labor MP Eddie Obeid and former mining minister Ian Macdonald, were among those investigated by ICAC.
The company refutes the commission's finding it was aware of the alleged corruption surrounding the licence when it made the acquisition.
"What NuCoal is challenging is the state's ability to impose a punishment, which is what they've done through the legislation, without any due process or hearing, or the company or those individuals having the ability to say, `that's not what happened'," said Michelle Fox, a partner with legal firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan, who have filed the High Court challenge for NuCoal.
A spokeswoman for NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard declined to comment as the matter was now before the court.
A first hearing is expected within weeks.
Travers Duncan, a former director of Cascade Coal, which owned one of the other cancelled mining licences, has already lodged his own High Court challenge to the law.
NuCoal is also pursuing a NSW Supreme Court action related to the ICAC findings and recommendations, and is seeking compensation for its shareholders and investors, most of whom are from the United States.
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