Delhi HC stays action against Moily, Mukesh Ambani in KG gas pricing case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today restrained the city government’s Anti Corruption Branch (ACB)from taking any coercive action against Oil Minister MVeerappa Moily, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani andothers named in an FIR over alleged irregularities in raisinggas prices.

Justice Manmohan, while issuing a notice to DelhiGovernment to respond in a week’s time on Centre’s pleaseeking quashing of the FIR lodged in February on thedirection of the previous Arvind Kejriwal government, said theACB can continue with its investigation into the matter.

[caption id=“attachment_80529” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  RIL chief Mukesh Ambani. AFP[/caption]

However, it will not take any coercive action againstthose named in the FIR, including officials and the privateparties, the court said.

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The court direction came as an oral submission was alsomade by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who appeared forprivate parties and requested that there be no furtherinvestigation in the case.

“Issue notice. She (counsel for Delhi Government) ispermitted to file counter reply within a week. You (DelhiGovernment’s Anti Corruption Branch) carry on yourinvestigation but no coercive action shall be taken againstUnion of India and against any of its officials related toit,” the court said.

Kejriwal had directed the Anti Corruption branch toregister an FIR on the basis of a complaint by four prominentpeople, including former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian.The complaint alleged that Moily, former Oil MinisterMurli Deora and others had colluded with Ambani to raise theprice of natural gas at the cost of the common man. All ofthem have denied the allegations.

The Kejriwal-led Delhi government had lodged the FIRnaming Moily, Mukesh Ambani and others on gas pricing issueand had alleged the Congress-led UPA government “favoured” RILwith an eye on 2014 general elections and BJP maintained"silence" hoping to gain corporate funding for the polls.Appearing for Centre, Solicitor General Mohan Parasaransought quashing of the FIR saying Anti-Corruption branch
of the Delhi Government has “no powers or jurisdiction toinvestigate” complaints against the Union Government’sdecision to fix prices of natural gas.

He said that Delhi government should have approached CBI,as it is an appropriate agency for investigation of suchcases.

“How can they (Delhi’s Anti Corruption Branch) go beforethe wrong authority. Let them go before proper forum. Why werethey in such a hurry to register the case,” he argued. During the hearing, Singhvi said, “This probe is tohumiliate and score a political point. It is a way of sayingthat look I have brought the high and mighty down. If theinvestigation is not stopped, it will completely undermine thefederal structure in which we will have states filing crosscomplaints against other states and the Centre.”

During the proceedings, the court, which observed thatthe case was registered on some senior person’s direction,said “can the police register the case on anyone’s direction”.

“Is it that if any politician will ask the police toregister the case, they will accordingly file? They (police)need to apply their own mind,” the court said.After Delhi Government’s counsel Zubeda Begum sought timeto reply on the plea, the judge said, “I cannot make the writpetition infructuous as it has a serious law issue.“The court also said how will a sub-inspector understandgas pricing.

During the hearing, the Solicitor General argued thatAnti Corruption Branch investigates the role of people only ifthey are concerned with the Delhi administration.It has lack of jurisdiction, especially with the fixingof the gas pricing as it falls under the central government,
he said, adding that if it happens, then tomorrow any stategovernment can register such cases.

Moily and Ambani have vehemently denied the allegations.Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) last week had moved the DelhiHigh Court for quashing of the FIR.In its petition seeking quashing of the FIR, the Centreargued that by registering the FIR the Delhi government was"seeking to investigate decisions in regard to gas pricefixation which falls in the exclusive domain of the centralgovernment”.

The petition said that public order and police have beenspecifically excluded from the domain of the legislativeassembly of the Delhi Government.

“The Delhi Government lacks any powers of its own in thearea of police powers and matters relating to law and order,“it said, adding any agency (like the anti-corruption branch)created by the state government cannot have higher powers orpurport to seek exercise of any higher powers.

All aspects relating to natural gas are within theexclusive legislative powers of Parliament and consequentlyexecutive powers of the Government of India.It also stated that at the time the complaint was filed,a writ petition filed by CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta on the
said issue was pending before the Supreme CourtThe Union Government, it said, was not going into themerits of the allegation as the issue was pending before theSupreme Court and its petition was seeking to declare that theAnti-Corruption Branch has no jurisdiction in regard to
employees/public servants of the central government and toquash the FIR.

The petition said the decision to revise gas prices wastaken by the Union Cabinet based on a formula suggested anexpert panel headed by Prime Minister’s Economic AdvisoryCouncil Chairman C Rangarajan.

The new rates, which would be almost double of currentprice of USD 4.2 per million British thermal unit, will applyto all domestic producers like state-owned ONGC as well asprivate sector RIL, which makes up for only 15 per cent of thetotal domestic output.

The decision was to be implemented from April 1 but wasdeferred following a direction of the Election Commission inview of the Lok Sabha polls.

PTI