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The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on a petition demanding that the Government approval for the Cairn Energy-Vedanta Resources deal be declared invalid.
The court also issued notice to Cairn Energy, Vedanta Resources and ONGC in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
The PIL, filed by a lawyer Mr Arun Kumar Agrawal, had sought the court's directions to order a CBI probe into the manner in which the Government has cleared the deal.
The petition highlights “how the (Union) Government has allowed transfer of oil resources of the country worth lakhs of crores of rupees to a private company by giving up its own legal rights in complete violation of the public trust doctrine.”
The petitioner also asked the court to direct the CBI to investigate the reasons for ONGC and Government not asserting and exercising their legal rights under the Right of First Refusal as well as giving clearance to the deal on the basis of the existing right to share the royalty and cess on a pro rata basis.
The petitioner claimed that the loss to ONGC/nation on non acquisition of shares is around Rs 1 lakh crore.
The petitioner wanted the court to direct the Comptroller and Auditor General to calculate the losses from the payment of 100 per cent of royalty and cess by ONGC before the Cairn-Vedanta deal. It also asked the court to direct ONGC and the Government to recover the excess royalty paid by ONGC.
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