The Supreme Court asked the Mukesh Ambani led-firm to show how the MoU is not binding on the company.
“You (RIL) show us how MoU is not binding on you. Forget about PSC (production sharing contract), which deals with your agreement with the government and not RNRL. It’s ancillary to the core issue of MoU. PSC was signed prior to the MoU. Were its contents not known when the MoU was signed subsequently,” asked a bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justices RV Raveendran and P Sathasivam to RIL’s counsel Harish Salve.
Justice Raveendran observed: “Is de-merger not a consequence of the MoU? Would demerger have happened if there was no MoU?”
Mr Salve’s response was robust. “The MoU is not worth the paper on which it is written as far as RIL is concerned,” he said. The only agreement binding on the company was the scheme of demerger approved by the board and later by the Bombay High Court. RIL Board had not approved the family MoU that provides for supply of gas by the company to Anil-led RNRL, Mukesh Ambani-run RIL's senior counsel Harish Salve said to the apex court.
Mr Salve said the government’s gas utilisation policy had taken away RIL’s right to market the gas. In response to a question, he said the gas policy had not been notified and that the government conveyed its instructions in the form of directions to the contractor, or RIL.
Labels: KG Basin, Reliance, RIL