20 July,2009 01:24 PM IST | | PTI
The Supreme Court today asked Mukesh Ambani-run RIL and Anil Ambani group firm RNRL to reply to the government's prayer for declaring "null and void" their family agreement on gas supply, and posted the matter for hearing on September 1.
The petition, which has also sought a direction for staying the June 15 Bombay High Court order that asked RIL to supply gas to RNRL, would come up before a three-judge bench, Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said today.
The government had also wanted the apex court to allow RIL to continue sale of gas to users other than RNRL. The Supreme Court also issued notices on the applications filed by customers of RIL seeking to intervene in the gas supply dispute the company has with RNRL.
The government had through the petition asserted its ownership over gas from KG-D6 fields and accused the Ambani brothers' group firms of "surreptiously" appropriating national resources and treating it as their personal and family property.
The government petition says that under the PSC, gas was its property and RIL as contractor does not have rights to utilise the gas, which could be sold only at a price approved by the administration.
