Additional Solicitor General of India Mohan Parasaran will appear on behalf of the Union government for the next hearing in the ongoing court battle between Reliance Industries (RIL) and Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL), three senior government officials confirmed.
At the same time, T S Doabia, the current government counsel, would also continue to represent the government, they said.
Responding to a news report that he has been replaced, Doabia said, “I am not aware of any such development. However, I had expressed my inability to attend the court on Friday due to prior commitments.” The Bombay High Court, which heard the case on Tuesday, has adjourned the case to November 14 and asked the government to file an affidavit explaining the gas-pricing policy and also why the policy should be binding on all contracts.
Government officials said both law and petroleum ministries had requested Parasaran to represent the government in the RIL-RNRL case. Parasaran confirmed his acceptance only today, they said. The Additional Solicitor General will represent the government as a "law officer" and will be present in the court “so long as the government stand is properly explained”. The court battle between the two companies controlled by the warring Ambani brothers is over supply of gas from RIL’s Krishna-Godavari basin to RNRL’s proposed gas plants at a price of $2.34 per million British thermal unit (mBtu).
Meanwhile, two senior RIL officials -- P M S Prasad, chief executive officer (petroleum), and B Ganguly, head of finance (petroleum) -- met top oil ministry officials today. Details of the meeting were not available.