Supreme Court asks Centre, CBI, RIL to reply in four weeks on KG Basin row
2 Oct 2013 5:25 AM IST
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to central government, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and others on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking cancellation of contract for exploration of oil and gas concerning the KG block, to impose penalty for failure to adhere to commitments as well as probe in the alleged ‘collusion between RIL and the political establishment’.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam asked all the respondents to file their response within four weeks and tagged the petition with CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta, who had also filed a PIL on the issue and the bench had earlier issued notice to the central government, RIL and petroleum minister Veerappa Moily.
The petition has been filed filed by Common Cause, T S R Subramanian (former Cabinet Secretary, Govt of India), Admiral (Retd.) L Ramdas (former Chief of Naval Staff) and Shri Ramaswamy R Iyer (former Secretary, Govt of India). It has sought a direction from the court to the central government to cancel its Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and NIKO reources on exploration of natural gas from KG basin, alleging deliberate under-production with mala fide intentions. The petition alleges that the government’s action in this case showed that it had played a fraud on the people and the Constitution of India. The PIL seeks a thorough probe by an SIT or CBI under the supervision of the apex court.
The petition is divided into five issues – hoarding of gas by RIL, gold plating of expenditure by RIL, non-relinquishment of area by RIL, mala fide doubling of gas price and retrospective tax concession. Petitioners have submitted that all these issues must be seen in conjunction with each other as they show a persistent mala fide conduct on behalf of RIL.
‘Despite the fact CAG had exposed the gold plating by RIL, no action was taken. A show-cause notice had been issued to RIL for its deliberate underproduction, but no action was taken and eventually the matter was not pursued. Despite the fact the cost of domestic extraction of gas in less than $2/mmbtu, and RIL had bid for 17 years contract with NTPC and RNRL to supply gas at $2.34/mmbtu, the govt first doubled the gas rate to $4.2/mmbtu and now has redoubled it to $8.4/mmbtu, making it the highest price rate in the world’, says the petition.
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