RNRL tells RIL to keep government out of gas sharing row

Industrialist Anil Ambani's energy firm, locked in a legal battle with his elder brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) over supply of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin, Tuesday told the latter that the government had no role to play in the dispute.

Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), in its reply to RIL's lawsuit against the Bombay High Court ruling on the gas sharing between the two firms, said that the government has no role to play in a private gas sharing dispute.

RIL has named the government as an intervener in its lawsuit.

RNRL said RIL was trying to depict the dispute as one between RNRL and the government rather than one between RIL and RNRL, adding that the government actually has little role to play in the dispute.

"The sale of gas is from RIL's share, over which it has complete marketing freedom. RNRL is not concerned with any part of the government's share of gas," the RNRL reply to the RIL lawsuit said, adding that impugned Bombay High Court ruling has no fiscal implication for the government.

"...Since the government does not receive any part of the proceeds of the sale of gas by RIL from its share of gas, there is no revenue implication to the government in the present dispute," RNRL said in its reply.

Alleging that RIL's special leave petition was "confused, contradictory and self-defeating," RNRL reply to RIL's lawsuit said the Mukesh Ambani-run firm had been taking different and changing stands before different fora.

Last updated on Jul 14^th, 2009 at 21:00 pm IST--IANS