FRONT PAGE | Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Two SC judges recuse from Ambani cases
Abraham Thomas | New Delhi
Justice Raveendran’s daughter works with legal firm advising RIL Justice Katju’s wife holds shares in Reliance Group
Two weeks after the Supreme Court took up the hearing of the gas dispute case between the Ambani brothers, two judges of the apex court on Wednesday created a flutter by recusing themselves from the proceedings. Justices RV Raveendran and Markandey Katju were hearing separate cases involving the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited.
While the judges’ belated decision has put the clock back on the hearing, it has also raised an interesting point of debate. Will judges in future not hear cases of companies in which they are shareholders? The question becomes relevant because in the recent public disclosure of assets, several Supreme Court judges have shown a significant investment in the share market.
The case before Justice Raveendran related to the gas dispute between the Anil Ambani-owned RNRL and Mukesh’s RIL. The second case involved dispute over a contractual agreement between RIL and Bharat Petroleum and it was placed before Justice Katju. While Justice Raveendran recused himself on the ground that his daughter was employed with a legal firm advising RIL, Justice Katju withdrew stating that his wife held shares in the company.
The drama began in Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan’s court on Wednesday morning where the hearing on the RIL-RNRL dispute over gas allocation from KG Basin is going on for two weeks.
Before senior counsel Harish Salve could begin arguments for RIL, Justice RV Raveendran expressed his inability to hear the case. “I learnt on Tuesday evening that the firm, in which my daughter is working, offers legal opinion to one of the parties in this case,” Justice Raveendran said.
The judge’s daughter had joined the Bangalore offices of AZB Partners’, a top Mumbai-based corporate law firm, on September 1 and had been offering advice on global acquisitions to Mukesh. The judge regretted that this decision came so late, with the court’s precious time having been wasted. The matter would now be heard on Thursday, when Justice B Sudershan Reddy replaces Justice Raveendran on the Bench.
Salve, who was supported by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani appearing for RNRL, suggested that they had no objection to this fact and that the judge may continue hearing the case. “It is in the convenience of things that the Bench may continue hearing the case,” Salve said. But the judge refused. “It is not about convenience. It’s about maintaining the court’s dignity.”
Since the matter had been argued for two weeks, the senior counsels suggested that a two-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam hear the matter. But the CJI refused, stating that the matter was important and that it had been heard by a three-judge Bench from the start.
Oblivious to the proceedings in the CJI’s court, Justice Katju also refused to adjudicate a dispute between RIL and Bharat Petroleum on an issue of contractual payment, on which the court had reserved orders in September. BPCL and Reliance had entered into an agreement in August 1986 for supplying naptha in bulk as a feed stock for manufacture of purified terephthalic acid.
Listing the matter on a special request on Wednesday, Justice Katju informed the counsels appearing for both the parties, “I cannot hear the matter further.” He suggested that the reason for his refusal was on account of the shares held by his wife in the Reliance Group of companies.
Justice Katju was possibly referring to the Rs 2-lakh investment made by his wife in April 2007 in Reliance Growth Fund and Reliance Regular Savings Fund, as mentioned in the assets declared by Justice Katju on the Supreme Court website. In a lighter vein, the judge added that he did not want any bad Press to later follow the case, knowing fully well that his assets were now a public document.
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