Bhakta stays after Mukesh appeal

Advocate withdraws resignation from Reliance Industries board.

The ML Bhakta resignation issue blew over with the 73-year-old advocate deciding to withdraw his resignation. Reliance Industries said in a media release that "Bhakta had agreed to reconsider his resignation".

The media statement said Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani met Bhakta to persuade the lawyer to reconsider his decision.

The statement said Mukesh Ambani refereed to "Bhakta's association with the company since its first IPO, the invaluable services rendered by him to Reliance Industries as a valued colleague of the founder chairman, Dhirubhai Ambani, and as a guide and mentor of the present leadership of the company thereafter". According to the statement, Bhakta agreed to withdraw his resignation.

Earlier in the day, Bhakta, 73, told Business Standard that he had resigned because of "advancing age". In a telephone conversation, Bhakta pointed out that he had been "slowly reducing commitments" over the years.

"Last year, I stepped down from the L&T board. Three years ago, I did the same thing from Bennett, Coleman & Co. I have even stopped travelling out of the city," he said.

Bhakta pointed out that a few years ago he was committed to 25 companies. Bhakta is now on the board of Gujarat Ambuja Cements Limited and Micro Inks Limited.

Before he withdrew his resignation, Bhakta conceded that he had made a mistake in the timing of his resignation. "This controversy has nothing to do with my resignation and it is my personal decision," he clarified.

Despite his age, however, Bhakta had offered himself for re-appointment to the Reliance Industries board at the annual general meeting on June 24, 2004.

Bhakta attended all the five Reliance Industries board meetings in 2003-2004, according to the company's annual report. No independent confirmation was available on Bhakta's presence at Reliance board meetings this year.

Asked whether he had resigned because he had been informed that a resolution would be moved to strip Reliance Industries Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani of his powers, Bhakta said: "There is no such thing."

He also scotched speculation that he had written private letters to either Mukesh Ambani or his mother explaining why he had resigned. "Except for my resignation letter, I gave no other letter," he declared.

Bhakta, a senior partner with Kanga & Company, a firm of advocates and solicitors in Mumbai, has been on the Reliance board for 27 years since 1977.