Apex court refuses pause in KG basin gas dispute hearing

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to pause proceedings in the high-stakes Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin gas migration dispute between the Centre and a Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)-led consortium, even as the consortium informed the court that it intends to approach the Union government seeking conciliation or mediation of the matter.

- Utkarsh Anand

After the RIL’s legal team mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, the CJI said that the hearing would continue unless both sides jointly informed the court that a resolution had been reached.

The development came a day after the Centre accused the consortium of having “virtually committed a theft” of natural gas belonging to state-run the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) from adjoining offshore fields in the KG basin off the Andhra Pradesh coast.

The hearing had on Tuesday commenced before the bench comprising the CJI and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi.

“Petitioners will today to approach the government...petitioners will write to the central government to attempt reconciliation or mediation. This is an ongoing contract and we are still in a contractual relationship with them,” counsel for the consortium, including advocates Sameer Parekh and Mahesh Agarwal, told the court.

Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, opposed any halt in the proceedings and urged the court to continue hearing the appeals.

“Let us complete the hearing, my lords. If there is any other development in the meantime, we can always bring it to the notice of the court. Why should the hearing be discontinued?” the attorney general submitted.