MUMBAI: The government on Thursday withdrew its month-old affidavit in the Reliance Industries -RNRL gas dispute case.
The government had, on November 14, filed an affidavit in the Bombay High Court saying that Mukesh Ambani-promoted RIL did not have the right to sell gas for less than the government-set price of $4.2.
The affidavit would have helped RIL in its fight against RNRL and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which are claiming that RIL is legally obliged to provide them gas at $2.34 according to previous supply agreements.
While in RNRL’s case, RIL is claiming that its hands are tied as the government is not letting it sell gas at $2.34, in the case of NTPC, RIL is refusing to finish the formalities pointing to what it says are tough indemnity clauses.
The court will now take up the matter on January 14, when both parties will be given three days each to put forth their arguments, including those in the memorandum of understanding signed by Anil Ambani and Mukesh Ambani as part of dividing their family wealth.
Why did the government withdraw? The government counsel, Mohan Parasaran, said it was done to prevent attention “being diverted to peripheral issues”. Last week, RNRL counsel Ram Jethmalani accused the government of favouring RIL by contorting facts, while filing its affidavit.
Jethmalani was all set to do an encore of his attack on the government stand by cross examining the government counsel on Thursday.
“People are forgetting the main issue. We are withdrawing the affidavit to prevent the main issue from being side-tracked,” Parasaran said, pointing out that attention is being diverted to peripheral issues such as whether the government is supporting RIL or not.
However, Parasaran initially tried to save the affidavit by trying to prevent RNRL from cross-examining it.
He said there was no need to cross examine the affidavit, claiming that it was based entirely on documents already submitted to the court or already in the public arena. Parasaran was supported in his efforts by RIL counsel Harish Salve, who said it was legally not possible to cross-examine the government stand.
Both were challenged by Jethmalani, who said that the government affidavit was based on “non-existent documents, non-existent policy and non-existent minutes” and had to be cross examined.
At this point, the government lawyer stood up and said he was “not inclined” to go on and would like to withdraw the affidavit. Parasaran also said the government will not be filing any more affidavits or sworn statements in this case in the future and would like to only help the court in an advisory role by giving its understanding of the law and policy through ‘submissions’. egal experts said submissions do not carry the same weight as affidavits as they cannot be cross examined.
“The main difference between the two is that affidavits are considered part of evidence, while submissions are not. The court has to consider all affidavits before deciding a case, but submissions do not have such a legal status,” pointed out Delhi-based advocate Naveen Matta.
RNRL shares were up 25.7%, while RIL was up 2.6% in a flat market on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday.
