Apex court reserves order on PIL challenging Cairn-Vedanta deal
4 April 2013 2:29 AM GMT
The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved judgment on a petition challenging the validity of the USD 8.5 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal and seeking a CBI probe into it.
A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra concluded the hearing in which Vedanta and ONGC defended the deal and the Centre also asserted that there was nothing wrong with it.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Bengaluru resident Arun Kumar Agarwal who alleged that there was a clause in the agreement between Cairn group and ONGC that in case Cairn Group wanted to sell its shares in Cairn India, it would first offer the same to ONGC and this right was ‘not asserted’ by the PSU and the Centre.
As per the clause, Cairn could sell its shares to other parties only after ONGC refused to buy the stake and ONGC, thus, had the right of first refusal (ROFR), he said.
The petitioner alleged that in violation of the clause Cairn Energy had signed a deal with Vedanta group to sell its shares in Cairns India, without making an offer to ONGC.
A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra concluded the hearing in which Vedanta and ONGC defended the deal and the Centre also asserted that there was nothing wrong with it.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Bengaluru resident Arun Kumar Agarwal who alleged that there was a clause in the agreement between Cairn group and ONGC that in case Cairn Group wanted to sell its shares in Cairn India, it would first offer the same to ONGC and this right was ‘not asserted’ by the PSU and the Centre.
As per the clause, Cairn could sell its shares to other parties only after ONGC refused to buy the stake and ONGC, thus, had the right of first refusal (ROFR), he said.
The petitioner alleged that in violation of the clause Cairn Energy had signed a deal with Vedanta group to sell its shares in Cairns India, without making an offer to ONGC.
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