RIL offers to withdraw directors' affidavits on pact

New Delhi: Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday made a conditional offer in the Supreme Court to withdraw the affidavits of seven directors who claimed no knowledge of the contents of a family pact between the two Ambani brothers.

Arguing before a three-month bench hearing the Krishna-Godavari gas dispute, RIL counsel Harish Salve made the offer if Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) deletes a paragraph from its petition, or averment, that the directors had approved and acted on the family pact.

The matter came up a day after RNRL senior counsel Ram Jethmalani said he would want to question the seven directors of RIL whose affidavits claimed they had no knowledge of the contents of the family pact, if the same are admitted as evidence.

The apex court has been hearing the dispute over the supply of 28 million units of gas for 17 years at $2.34 per unit to the Anil Ambani-led RNRL from the gas fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast, awarded to Mukesh Ambani's RIL.

The price, tenure and quantity were all based on a family re-organisation pact in 2005, but RIL subsequently said it can only sell the gas for $4.20 per unit, as this was the price, the company claimed, that was fixed by the government.

A three-member bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice B Sudershan Reddy and Justice P Sathasivam is hearing the matter.

Salve said the RNRL's averment, made for the first time, implied that the RIL board was aware of the contents of the family pact. "It also seeks to attribute the personal acts of Mukesh Ambani to the RIL board."

At this juncture Jethmalani contended that RIL was welcome to contradict the averment as per the settled legal position, but it is not supposed to introduce new evidence in the apex court in form of affidavits from directors.

"I will justify my averment only on the basis of the records submitted to the courts below. Only because I have stated something objectionable to you, you cannot introduce new evidence," contended Jethmalani.

"First make up your mind what you want to do."

To this the RIL counsel replied: "Then ignore it."