Divestment deadlock: Shourie meets Advani

In a bid to break the virtual deadlock over privatisation programme, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie on Friday met Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.

The divestment ministry also submitted the option paper to Law Minister Arun Jaitley containing suggestions on the future course of action following the Supreme Court judgement that halted the divestment of two public sector oil firms: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

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While Shourie did not comment on his meeting with Advani, the entire exercise is a prelude to the ensuing meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment, where the government would decide how to tackle the situation arising out of the Supreme Court judgement on HPCL and BPCL which, government sources feel, has generated fears of more and more court cases about other PSUs.

After meeting Jaitley on Thursday, Shourie had said he would submit an option paper to the law minister within a day.

He had said that many possibilities were being considered by the government, including a legal recourse.

Meanwhile, sources associated with the divestment process on Friday indicated that the divestment ministry was not seeking a review of the Supreme Court judgement, but was likely to explore other alternatives to break the current impasse.

"A review is not a good idea as it goes to the same two judges...and they do not even have to hear you...There are several other forms (alternatives) and we are exploring these," sources said.

The Supreme Court judgement, last week, restrained the government from proceeding with the divestment of HPCL and BPCL without prior approval of Parliament.

Faced with apprehensions that the Supreme Court judgement could lead to a plethora of court cases with regard to other public sector unit, the government is learnt to be weighing the option of approaching the Supreme Court to seek clarifications on its ruling.

The need to seek clarifications was further aggravated with the Madras high court recently asking Centre to hold the final divestment of Madras Fertilisers till a decision was taken on a petition challenging the PSU's privatisation but allowing the Union government to go ahead with the procedure.

Government officials said there could be many other cases that might be challenged in courts and this fear would deter bidders to come forward and participate in the privatisation process.

Apart from seeking clarifications through an appropriate petition, particularly relating to references on the role of Parliament vis-a-vis divestment in PSUs whose shares were bought from the Consolidated Fund of India, the government may also explore possibilities of requesting the apex court to constitute a larger bench to adjudicate the constitutional aspects of divestment.

At the same time, the government may not prefer to go to Parliament for approval of divestment in HPCL and BPCL as it may not get the required support, sources indicated.