JOIN USRNRL Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing before a three-Judge bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said the company’s claim over natural gas for the Dadri power project from Reliance Industries Ltd is based on six premises such as price, terms of supply, quantity, liability of seller, identity of buyer and identity of affiliate company.
While dealing with the seller’s liability, Rohatgi said neither the original terms of the NTPC tender GSPA nor the MoU contained a cap on seller’s liability in the event of supply shortfall due to any reason other than force beyond nature. According to the terms offered to RNRL, Rohatgi said if supply terminated by RIL, RNRL was entitled to compensation of the amount of maximum six months and it was not acceptable to the company. The supply should not be at the mercy of RIL and it should be supplied for 17 years according to the MoU. If the gas from KG-6 was exhausted, gas should be supplied from other fields of RIL, he submitted.
Rohatgi said that identity of the buyer should be clarified as to be RNRL and it should be given the right to use it for its power plants which had been under the direct control of Reliance Power Ltd, an affiliate of the parent company.
He said that even financiers were ready to pay Rs 20,000 crore for the project, but it wanted a bankable document on gas deal for 17 years at US$ 2.34 per unit.