Plea in SC questions natural gas pricing

The Supreme Court was moved Wednesday seeking quashing of the government's recent decision hiking natural gas prices from April 2014 and direction to the government to cancel the production-sharing contract with Reliance Industries and NIKO Resources related to the Krishna-Godavari basin block.

The public interest litigation, filed by NGO Common Cause, former cabinet secretary T.S.R. Subramanian, former naval chief L. Ramdas and former secretary Ramaswamy R. Iyer, also sought a court-monitored investigation into the alleged collusion between politicians and corporates.

The petitioners sought levying of penalty on the involved corporates for their persistence failure in adhering to their commitments, deliberate underproduction and allegedly malafide conduct.

Seeking the quashing of the recent decision to increase the gas prices from $4.2 mmbtu to $8.4 mmbtu, the petition said new gas prices should be applicable only for fresh auctions for unexplored greenfield areas and not to existing discoveries.

The petition said the action of the government showed that instead of acting as custodian and trustee of natural resources belonging to people, "it has played a fraud on the people and the constitution".