The bench heard RIL’s senior council Harish Salve for two hours. The fight is between stewards of two companies,” he told the apex court “It is between two persons.” He gave the background and chronology of events so far.He would continue his arguments on Wednesday also.

 

RNRL is seeking a minimum 28 million standard cubic meters per day, or more than one-third of the peak output from RIL's KG-D6 fields, for a period of 17 years. For RNRL this is the case of survival as was asserted by Anil Ambani to shareholders in July this year ,” The gas supply contract is our company's primary asset and contributes most of its value."

 

When the case came to supreme court in June it constituted a three member bench comprising of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam and Justice B S Chauhan. Later, R V Raveendran has replaced Justice Chauhan.

 

Before the proceedings Justice Raveendran disclosed that he holds equal number of shares in RIL and RNRL and enquired if any party has any objection. All parties stated that they have no objection, and the same was recorded by the Court.

 

The sentiments of investing community are very much linked to this case. When the case came up for hearing the RIL share prices on browser started to slip. By the end of the day it had lost 2.14% of its value three times the drop in sensex. RIL share showed a peak of 2,240 during the day trade and clsed at  2,177. Whereas the shares of RNRL, the company that procures fuel for ADAG group companies, gained 1.2% to  close at Rs87.65. During the day it touched the peak of 91.15.  However, the stock is still about 20% down  since 15 June when RIL filed the case to challenge Mumbai high court’s verdict in favour of the later.

 

The government of India has sought to become party to the dispute. Ministry of Petroleum and Gas has contended that national resources cannot be appropriated through private family arrangements and it alone holds the right to approve rates and decide on customers keeping national priorities in mind. Last week, the Petroleum Ministry also sought to expand the legal team. The government will lose Rs 22,600 crore in revenues if RNRL is allowed to get the gas at 2.34 $ per mmBtu.