News Release Details
SC quashes High Court stay on LNG pricing
New Delhi 23-Aug-2007
Supreme Court today lifted the stay imposed by the Gujarat High Court on the new pricing policy for liquefied natural gas (LNG). After severely criticising the high court for ordering the stay in a "summary manner", without hearing the Centre or major petroleum corporations, the Supreme Court asked the high court to reconsider the order by a division bench. A single judge bench of the high court, on July 31, had passed the controversial order without giving time to the central government, Gas Authority of India Ltd and other oil corporations to present their case. The order created chaos among LNG consumer companies, one result of which was the shutdown of the Ratnagiri power project. Maharashtra complained of severe power crunch in the state. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhan remarked that such an order be great magnitude should have been passed only1 after giving sufficient time to the' opposite parties to reply to the petitions. Gujarat State Petrochemical Corporation and a few other Gujarat consumer companies filed the petitions in the high court. The judges remarked that the single judge of the high court committed "legal impropriety in the sense that the order violated the principle of natural justice." A court can pass no order without hearing the affected parties. The Supreme Court therefore directed the high court to hear Petronet LNG Ltd, GAIL, Indian Oil Corporation and BP-CL as parties in the case and pass fresh orders. The single judge had deleted their names before passing the stay order. The Chief Justice of the high court will constitute the new division bench and it will hear the stay application once again on September 10.
New Delhi 23-Aug-2007
Supreme Court today lifted the stay imposed by the Gujarat High Court on the new pricing policy for liquefied natural gas (LNG). After severely criticising the high court for ordering the stay in a "summary manner", without hearing the Centre or major petroleum corporations, the Supreme Court asked the high court to reconsider the order by a division bench. A single judge bench of the high court, on July 31, had passed the controversial order without giving time to the central government, Gas Authority of India Ltd and other oil corporations to present their case. The order created chaos among LNG consumer companies, one result of which was the shutdown of the Ratnagiri power project. Maharashtra complained of severe power crunch in the state. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhan remarked that such an order be great magnitude should have been passed only1 after giving sufficient time to the' opposite parties to reply to the petitions. Gujarat State Petrochemical Corporation and a few other Gujarat consumer companies filed the petitions in the high court. The judges remarked that the single judge of the high court committed "legal impropriety in the sense that the order violated the principle of natural justice." A court can pass no order without hearing the affected parties. The Supreme Court therefore directed the high court to hear Petronet LNG Ltd, GAIL, Indian Oil Corporation and BP-CL as parties in the case and pass fresh orders. The single judge had deleted their names before passing the stay order. The Chief Justice of the high court will constitute the new division bench and it will hear the stay application once again on September 10.