Delhi HC dismisses Centre's plea accusing RIL of 'unjust enrichment'

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed Centre's petition accusing Reliance Industries and its partners of committing an "insidious fraud" and "unjust enrichment of over $1.729 billion" by siphoning gas from deposits they had no right to exploit, a report by The Economic Times (ET) said.

A Singapore-based three-member tribunal for international arbitration had also announced its decision in favour of the Reliance-led consortium on July 24, 2018. Judge Anup Jairam Bhambhani today upheld the decision and said that the case calls for "no interference".

The Singapore tribunal said that the production sharing contract (PSC) does not prohibit the contractor from producing gas, irrespective of its source, as long as the production was out of the contract area. It said that the consortium was not liable to pay any dues. Moreover, it had also asked the Centre to pay the consortium $8.3 million as the cost of arbitration.

The consortium includes UK-based BP Plc and Canada's Niko Resources.

In 2014, the Centre asked RIL to pay $1.47 billion for disgorgement of unjust enrichment by draining and selling the gas from two ONGC blocks that border RIL's block. It said that RIL was not entitled to produce gas from those blocks as it had not asked the Centre's permission for it.

Later the same year, ONGC approached the Delhi High Court, complaining that RIL was producing gas from its blocks.