Epic Ambani legal tussle nears end

The legal tussle between Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Natural Resources is likely to be over next Tuesday. The fate of the case will be in the hands of the division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justices JN Patel and KK Tated. A final ruling is likely by March, said a senior counsel appearing in the case. The high-profile case, which has attracted unprecedented attention because of the huge stakes involved, has seen some of India’s greatest lawyers battle it out in the High Court’s room number 49. On Thursday, RIL’s counsel Harish Salve contended that RNRL had made certain changes in its pleading in the course of the lengthy court battle. The pleading submitted by RNRL, based on the MoU signed between the Ambani brothers in June 2005, had been “fudged” and did not quote the MoU directly, he said. The subtle change in the argument was to change the beneficiary of gas from RIL’s KG basin from Reliance Energy to the entire Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group (ADAG) so that the group can use the gas for trading, Mr Salve claimed. Reliance Energy, now known as Reliance Infrastructure, is a part of the Anil Ambani group. Mr Salve further said in order of the priority, the first 12 million standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) of gas would be supplied to NTPC followed by 28 mmscmd to REL. The next claimant would be RIL for its captive consumption and this could go up to 25 mmscmd. If NTPC’s contract did not materialise, the queue would remain the same with 28 mmscmd of gas for REL and the next 25 mmscmd for RIL and the balance would be divided in such a way that the overall share would be in the ratio of 60:40 for RIL and ADAG, respectively. But RNRL had submitted that if the NTPC deal did not work out, the entire 40 mmscmd of gas would be made available to it at the same price and commercial terms as would be applicable to NTPC. But this argument is not in accordance with the MoU, Mr Salve argued. He also said the MoU did not mention that the contract would be for 17 years, contradicting a claim by RNRL. The gas supplied to ADAG by the Mukesh Ambani group was not for trading, he said. RNRL also filed its affidavit in court on Thursday in response to the affidavits filed by the Union of India and RIL on Tuesday. The RNRL affidavit contended that RIL had bid to supply gas to NTPC at a particular price and the bid was accepted. “It was an arm’s length contract and neither the ministry nor the eGoM, nor the government as a whole can modify it unless NTPC, persuaded by the government of India’s voting power, pays around Rs 25,000 crore more to RIL, which would be a scam about 4 times more than the notorious Satyam scam, which has just been noticed,” it states.