Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan will retire in the first half of May, fuelling speculation that we could soon have a verdict in the Reliance Industries (RIL) versus Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNRL) case which has already been through a single and division bench of the Bombay High Court, reports CNBC-TV18's Nayantara Rai.
Interestingly, the previous two judgements, have upheld the Ambani family memorandum of understanding (MoU) of 2005 which RNRL argues is the basis of the gas agreement with RIL. But what is different this time round is the role of the government. The Solicitor General, Gopal Subramanium in his closing arguments had stated that two brothers had no right to merge or demerge government property, in this case natural gas. He said the Empowered Group of Ministers (EgoM) approved price of USD 4.2/mmbtu and the gas utilisation policy cannot be challenged by RNRL. The government counsel urged the court to uphold national interest over corporate gains. If the court finds merit in the government argument, it could put the RNRL camp on the back foot.
What about the 2005 Ambani family MoU?
Don't forget RIL counsel, in court had said "If you want to sue Mukesh Ambani, then sue him. My client is RIL".
RIL's Senior Counsel Harish Salve has argued the MoU is not worth the paper it's written on and certainly not binding on Reliance Industries since it was signed by Mukesh Ambani in his personal capacity. So if the verdict were to go in favour of RIL, could Anil Ambani take recourse by suing his brother?
RIL has argued that the demerger scheme, which has the approval of the Bombay HC is sacrosanct and not the family MoU. The demerger scheme, though is silent on the price, quantity and tenure of gas has allegedly been mentioned in the family settlement.
So as we get closer to May, all eyes are on the Supreme Court and which way it will call the most fiercely fought corporate battle in India.
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You cant do anything about the Length of your life,but you can do something about its Width and Depth.
Samir Kumar Shah.
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