Not going ahead with hike in gas prices, government tells SC

The central government Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was not going ahead with the hike in gas prices as the Election Commission has asked for the decision to be put on hold.

A bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan, Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Kurian Joseph was also told that the decision to double the gas prices was taken by the cabinet in 2013, based on R.Rangarajan Committee's recommendations.

At the outset of the hearing, Additional Solicitor General L.Nageswara Rao told the court that government was not pushing forward for increasing the gas prices as Election Commission has asked it (government) to keep it on hold.

Solicitor General Mohan Prasaran too told the court that there was no formal order, and the hike was just a formula which has been accepted by the government.

As Prasaran and Rao made their submissions, the court wondered whether it should look into policy decisions or guidelines in the absence of any formal order.

However, it continued with the hearing of two PILs, one by communist law maker Gurudas Dasgupta and other by NGO Common Cause.

While Dasagupta has challenged the decision to hike the gas prices, the NGO Common Cause is seeking the cancellation of production sharing contract between the government and the Reliance Industries Ltd.