KG basin dispute: No favours to RIL, Moily tells SC

Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily has told the Supreme Court (SC) that he has not done any favour to Reliance Industries (RIL) and allegations levelled against him by Communist Party of India member of Parliament Gurudas Dasgupta are baseless and politically motivated.

“The allegation that the present minister was inducted to do Reliance’s bidding is absolutely baseless without any substance and as a matter of fact defamatory. This baseless allegation not only defames him but also the entire process of Cabinet formation and allocation of portfolios,” Moily said in his affidavit.

The petroleum minister filed the affidavit complying with the order of apex court, which had issued notice to him, in addition to Centre and other parties.

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Moily was responding to allegations levelled by Dasgupta and a non-governmental organisation, Common Cause, that he was trying to favour RIL on the KG Basin dispute.

[caption id=“attachment_1214321” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Moily was responding to allegations levelled by Dasgupta and a non-governmental organisation, Common Cause, that he was trying to favour RIL on the KG Basin dispute. PTI[/caption]

“At the outset, I vehemently deny the allegations made against me and respectfully submit that the said allegations apart from being blatantly false, baseless and reckless, are politically motivated and have been with malafide intentions,” Moily said.

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“Apart from this, it is submitted that he has not done any favour to Reliance Industries Ltd. or that no orders have been passed junking arbitration as alleged by the petitioner,” the affidavit adds.

Moily submitted that he was made party in the public interest litigations only for political reasons and pleaded the court to delete his name.

“It is submitted that petitioners have arrayed this respondent as a party in the present proceedings only to sensationalise the issue and to draw political mileage. As such, the arraying of him as a party is entirely mischievous and misconceived and an attempt to derive political mileage and sensationalise the matter,” the affidavit said.

PTI