RIL questions RNRL's demand for gas without plant

The Mukesh Ambani-led RIL today questioned in the Supreme Court the demand of brother Anil Ambani-led RNRL for the immediate supply of gas from the K-G basin, saying that it cannot be done in the absence of the proposed power plant as per the agreement reached between them.

“There was an assurance given for the supply of gas, but the other side (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) failed to establish the power plant. Now they want to make money out of the gas which was never contemplated in the demerger scheme,” Senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for RIL, said before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishanan.

Continuing his arguments in the high-voltage gas row, Salve said the assured supply of gas was the vital ingredient of the agreement for the power plant to be established by the RNRL at Dadri, near Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

“Therefore, no court can modify the scheme which they (RNRL) sought,” Salve submitted before the Bench, also comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam.

RIL’s submission revolved around the question of a suitable arrangement for the supply of gas from the K-G Basin to RNRL. When the day’s hearing was about to conclude, RNRL’s Counsel Ram Jethmalani contended that seven of the affidavits filed in the apex court by RIL’s Directors relating to the family MoU of 2005 were not a part of the record when the dispute was heard in the Bombay High Court.

Jethmalani submitted that if RIL consents and the affidavits were allowed to be the part of the records then, under company court procedure, the seven directors were open to cross-examination in the court.

The Ambani brothers are locked in a bitter battle over the supply and price of the gas from the K-G basin. While RNRL is seeking gas at a committed price of $2.34 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), RIL says it cannot honour the commitment made in the family agreement due to government’s pricing and gas policies.

However, before the intervention by RNRL, Salve said the scheme of demerger provided that the gas has to be supplied up to the delivery point, after which it would be for the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) to transport the gas to its power plant.

“The suitable arrangement would be that RNRL take the gas from delivery point for REL. However, what they wanted is that, from the delivery point, RNRL would take the gas and market it,” he said, adding that “no court could grant such a relief to RNRL for taking the natural resource and making profit by marketing”.

RIL said supply of gas to RNRL at $2.34 per mBtu was not possible as it would have to make up for the loss from its own pocket.

Reports of my quitting incorrect: ASG Parasaran Meanwhile, Mohan Parasaran, the government’s counsel in the Ambani brothers gas dispute, has said that he had never threatened to withdraw from the case on the issue of inclusion of more lawyers in the team.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Parasaran last week wrote to Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey saying he had never threatened to withdraw from the case or resign as ASG on talks on including more lawyers in the government team, official sources said.