"I found that broadly the SLP was acceptable, but was of the view that we should confine ourselves to the grievances as an aggrieved party arising out of the judgement of the Bombay high court.
"Even the challenge to the MoU could only be in so far as the gas sale agreement and not to the other matters... the SLP in its final shape was not seen by me," he said in a communication to the law ministry, presumably as a response to queries generated on the contents of the petition.
When contacted, Parasaran, additional solicitor general, declined to comment on the communication and the issues raised therein.
It may be recalled that Anil Ambani had on July 15 written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that the petroleum ministry was playing a partisan role and was siding with Mukesh Ambani group firm RIL in a commercial dispute with his group firm RNRL.
The Prime Minister's Office had subsequently forwarded the letter to the oil ministry for comments. The same was also believed to have been forwarded to the law ministry.
Parasaran, however, clarified in the communication that as ASG he was not expected to supervise filing of cases nor give any instruction on behalf of the government to file cases or pleadings before the Supreme Court.
The Bombay high court on June 15 had ordered RIL to supply gas to RNRL at $2.34 per mmBtu for a 17-year period and asked the two sides to work out a suitable agreement within a month, before the expiry of which the two sides moved the Supreme Court with cross-appeals.
The government, which was sought to be made an intervener by RIL, had first filed an affidavit on July 17. But the very next day, it moved a special leave petition seeking to declare the Ambani brothers' MoU as null and void, while asserting its ownership on natural resources.
It argued that the high court ruling undermines the government's gas utilisation policy and the provisions of the Production Sharing Contract and wanted the order to be stayed in the interim. Parasaran said it was in light of the high court ruling that he had advised the ministry, as an aggrieved party, to file the SLP challenging the judgement.
Image: Anil and Mukesh Ambani