Ambani gas row starts afresh

Private arrangements cannot be brought into shareholding firms: RIL

A bench of Chief Justice K G  Balakrishnan,  Justices B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam heard the case after Justice R V Raveendran withdrew himself from hearing saying that his daughter worked for a law firm at Bangalore which advised Mukesh Ambani’s RIL on global acquisitions.

RIL Advocate Harish Salve submitted a 25-page synopsis of the case to the Judges before starting his arguments.

Starting the arguments for RIL, Salve said ‘’Private arrangements can not be brought to shareholding companies. Private arrangements are to be kept out of share-holders schemes.’’  ‘’Whether the MOU between the members of the promoters family is binding upon the corporate entity RIL?’’ asked Salve to the bench.

While challenging the ruling of the lower Court, Salve said the Bombay High Court erred in saying that contractor has a share in the gas which it can deal with at will.

Government right

RIL also raised that the Apex Court will also decide whether, ‘’The government has no right to fix the price of gas that comes to the contractor’s share?’’

Salve said the gas utilization policy (GUP) and price sharing contract (PSC) are the basis on which the government has taken a decision to allocate gas to different priority consumers and price of natural gas.

The arguments by RIL counsel remained inconclusive and will resume on Tuesday.
Based on a family agreement, the Anil Ambani Group wants 28 million units of gas per day for 17 years at $2.34 per unit. But Reliance Industries says it can only sell it for $4.20 per unit, claiming this was the price approved by the government, said Salve narrating the ruling of Bombay High Court which went in favour of RNRL.

The Bombay High Court had upheld the claim by the younger brother Anil Ambani’s group in a verdict delivered in June, which was challenged by Reliance Industries in the apex court.