Divestment policy under review: Govt

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government today informed the Supreme Court that it was reviewing the disinvestment policy pursued by the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.

Attorney General Milon Banerjee's submission to this effect came during the hearing of a petition challenging the disinvestment of Kolkata-based engineering public-sector undertaking (PSU) Jessop & Company, in which the NDA government had moved an application seeking review of the apex court order halting privatisation of public-sector oil companies "" Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL). In the oil PSUs' case, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre at that time to seek Parliament's approval.

After Banerjee sought time for formulation of a comprehensive policy in this regard, a bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice S B Sinha admitted the petition filed by the staff association of Jessop & Company, challenging the decision of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), allowing the disinvestment.

While referring the matter to a larger bench, the strength of which will be decided by the Chief Justice of India, the bench also allowed the Centre's petition seeking transfer to the apex court of all disinvestment-related cases pending before various high courts across the country.

The bunch of petitions listed before the court included a plea filed by the Kshetriya Tamba Shramik Sangh challenging the Centre's decision to privatise Hindustan Zinc Limited.