Gas pricing: Justice Manmohan recuses from hearing pleas of Centre, RIL

NEW DELHI: A Delhi High Court judge today recused from hearing two separate pleas of the Centre and Reliance Industries Ltd seeking quashing of an FIR lodged against RIL, Mukesh Ambani and former Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily for alleged collusion among them in increasing gas prices.

"I will not hear these (petitions). Let these petitions be listed before some other bench," Justice Manmohan said as soon as senior lawyers, Harish Salve, A M Singhvi, Vikas Singh and Additional Solicitor General L Nageshwar Rao, rose to address the court.

Justice Manmohan then listed the matters for August 19. Meanwhile, the court said its earlier interim order will continue and asked the Centre and the RIL to co-operate in the probe by Anti-Corruption Bureau of Delhi government.

It said, as per the earlier order, "no coercive action will be taken against the persons mentioned in the FIR".

Earlier, the court had issued notices on the plea of RIL seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against it, Mukesh Ambani and Moily by the then AAP government.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government had lodged an FIR naming Moily, Mukesh Ambani and others on gas pricing issue and alleged the Congress-led UPA government "favoured" RIL with an eye on 2014 general elections and BJP maintained "silence" hoping to gain corporate funding for the polls.

Both the Centre and RIL have moved the high court seeking quashing of the FIR and both matters will now come up for hearing on August 19.

RIL, the Mukesh Ambani-led flagship company, in its plea, has alleged the FIR was "motivated and malicious" and was part of the "political gimmicking" as AAP, before and during the state election campaign, had made "false and frivolous" allegations against the firm.