The Delhi high court (HC) division Bench on Thursday sought a response from Reliance Industries (RIL) and others regarding the government s appeal against the Mukesh Ambani-owned conglomerate and others for fraudulently and unjustly enriching themselves by draining gas from their deposits, amounting to over $1.5 billion.
The Centre had appealed against the single-judge Bench order of the Delhi HC on May 9, which had dismissed its petition.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani had upheld the international arbitration award of July 24, 2018, in favour of the RIL-led consortium.
The consortium includes UK-based BP Plc and Niko Resources of Canada.
The Delhi High Court has asked for a response from Reliance Industries and others regarding the government s appeal accusing the conglomerate of committing fraud and unjust enrichment of over $1.729 billion by siphoning gas from deposits they were not authorized to exploit. The government argues that Reliance knew about the connectivity of its block with that of ONGC s block and deliberately extracted and sold gas without permission.
The case dates back to 2016. On November 4, 2016, the Union Oil Ministry slapped a demand of $1.47 billion on the RIL-BP-Niko consortium for “unfairly” producing natural gas belonging to ONGC.