New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Thursday said it will decide on August 11 the bench that will hear RIL and the Centre's pleas against the city government's decision to lodge an FIR against two former Union ministers in connection with alleged irregularities in raising the price of gas from the company's KG6 basin.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher said the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court had marked to him the petitions of the Centre and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which pertain to powers of Delhi government's Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) to proceed against central government employees.
However, since there was another matter pending before another bench where the Centre's notifications on ACB's powers have been challenged by Delhi government, he sent the two petitions back to the Chief Justice with a note on whether all three be heard together.
Justice Shakdher listed the two petitions for directions on August 11 when he will inform what the Chief Justice has decided.
The other matter pertaining to challenge of Centre's notifications by Delhi government is also slated to be heard on August 11 by Justice V P Vaish.
RIL and the Centre have challenged an FIR lodged by ACB against UPA ministers M Veerappa Moily and Murli Deora, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani and others.
The Centre has sought quashing of the FIR on the ground that as per its notifications of July 23, 2014, and those issued thereafter, ACB does not have the power to proceed against central government officials.
The notifications have limited the ACB's powers to probe graft cases to the extent that it can investigate only city government officials and not those of the Centre.
The counsel for the Delhi and Central governments today told Justice Shakdher that these notifications have been substantially challenged and are pending before another bench.
Earlier, RIL had argued in the high court that the city government's decision to probe the Centre's policy on gas pricing was a "peculiar" and "absurd" situation.
Apart from lodging the FIR, the Delhi government had also alleged that the UPA government "favoured" RIL with an eye on the 2014 general elections and BJP maintained "silence" hoping to gain corporate funding for the polls. The charges have been denied by RIL and others.
Delhi government has opposed RIL's submissions saying it was only investigating a criminal complaint and central government officials may come in the sweep of its probe.
The UPA-II government had moved the court for quashing of the FIR, saying ACB of Delhi government has "no powers or jurisdiction to investigate" complaints against the union government's decision to fix prices of natural gas.
It had said Delhi government should have approached CBI as it is an appropriate agency for investigation of such cases.
Earlier, Delhi government had submitted before the court that it had received a clarification from the Home Ministry on September 30, 2014, that the notification will have prospective effect.
Delhi government had also stated on affidavit that in 2004, the Centre had signed a long-term gas supply agreements between NTPC and the private firm at the rate of USD 2.34 per mmBtu and later in 2007, the price of gas was fixed at USD 4.24 per mmBtu.
It had also said that later, the gas price, to be paid to the firms with effect from April 1, 2014, was again hiked to USD 8.4 per mmBtu and added that the cost incurred, however, is less than USD 1 per mmBtu.
