INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - JANUARY 1^st - JANUARY 15^th - 2008

BOMBAY HIGH COURT ADMITS RIL, RNRL APPLICATIONS; HEARING ON FEB 5

The Bombay High court has admitted applications filed by Reliance Industries (RIL) and Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL), which will come up for hearing on February 5. The appeal, admitted by Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar is against the court order of October 14, 2007, that asked both the parties to settle the dispute by sitting across the table. RIL's petition seeks to lift the stay on its selling gas to a third party. The company avers that gas from Krishna Godavari (KG) basin is slated for commercial production in the next two quarters and it needs to firm up gas sales contracts before that. In an earlier order on June 20, the court had prevented RIL from creating any third-party interest in gas from the D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin.